Open Source Software Development Process Research Articles

An Open-Source Software Reliability Model Considering Learning Factors and Stochastically Introduced Faults

In recent years, software development models have undergone changes. In order to meet user needs and functional changes, open-source software continuously improves its software quality through successive releases. Due to the iterative development process of open-source software, open-source software testing also requires continuous learning to understand the changes in the software. Therefore, the fault detection process of open-source software involves a learning process. Additionally, the complexity and uncertainty of the open-source software development process also lead to stochastically introduced faults when troubleshooting in the open-source software debugging process. Considering the phenomenon of learning factors and the random introduction of faults during the testing process of open-source software, this paper proposes a reliability modeling method for open-source software that considers learning factors and the random introduction of faults. Least square estimation and maximal likelihood estimation are used to determine the model parameters. Four fault data sets from Apache open-source software projects are used to compare the model performances. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model is superior to other models. The proposed model can accurately predict the number of remaining faults in the open-source software and be used for actual open-source software reliability evaluation.

Improvement of the Open Source Software Development Process

Improvement of the Open Source Software Development Process

Fuzzy analysis and prediction of commit activity in open source software projects

Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models are the most commonly used prediction models in the previous studies on software evolution prediction. This study explores a prediction method based on fuzzy time series for predicting the future commit activity in open source software (OSS) projects. The idea to choose fuzzy time series based prediction method is due to the stochastic nature of the OSS development process. Commit activity of OSS project indicates the activeness of its development community. An active development community is a strong contributor to the success of OSS project. Therefore commit activity prediction is an important indicator to the project managers, developers, and users regarding the evolutionary prospects of the project in future. The fuzzy time series-based prediction method is of order three and uses time variant difference parameter on the current state to forecast the next state data. The performance and suitability of computational method are examined in comparison with that of ARIMA model on a data set of seven OSS systems. It is found that the predicted results of the computational method outperform various ARIMA models. Towards the end, a commit prediction model is used for each project to analyse the trends in their commit activity.

Understanding Open Source Software Evolution Using Fuzzy Data Mining Algorithm for Time Series Data

Source code management systems (such as Concurrent Versions System (CVS), Subversion, and git) record changes to code repositories of open source software projects. This study explores a fuzzy data mining algorithm for time series data to generate the association rules for evaluating the existing trend and regularity in the evolution of open source software project. The idea to choose fuzzy data mining algorithm for time series data is due to the stochastic nature of the open source software development process. Commit activity of an open source project indicates the activeness of its development community. An active development community is a strong contributor to the success of an open source project. Therefore commit activity analysis along with the trend and regularity analysis for commit activity of open source software project acts as an important indicator to the project managers and analyst regarding the evolutionary prospects of the project in the future.

Open Source Software Evolution

This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review conducted to understand the Open Source Software (OSS) development process on the basis of evidence found in the empirical research studies. The study targets the OSS project evolution research papers to understand the methods and techniques employed for analysing the OSS evolution process. Our results suggest that there is lack of a uniform approach to analyse and interpret the results. The use of prediction techniques that just extrapolate the historic trends into the future should be a conscious task as it is observed that there are no long-term correlations in data of such systems. OSS evolution as a research area is still in nascent stage. Even after a number of empirical studies, the field has failed to establish a theory. There is need to formalize the field as a systematic and formal approach can produce better software.

Collaboration Tools of the Agile Methodology Impact on the OS Project Evaluation

Agile development methodologies and open source software development process(OSSDP) has repeatedly called for common frequent releases and short development cycle. TDD(Test Driven Development) and refactoring (Refactoring) represented by the characteristics of Agile Techniques, and frequent communication represented by the characteristic of Agile methodology. If you apply the three factors in OSSDP will increase the satisfaction of the users and then participating in the OS project maturity also will increase. Received (September 03 2015), Review Result(September 21, 2015) Accepted(October 05, 2015), Published(December 31, 2015) 156-032 Dept. SW engeneering, Graduated Soongsil University, Sangdo-Dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea email: hyojung.sohn@gmail.com 156-032 Dept. SW engeneering, Graduated Soongsil University, Sangdo-Dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea email:marse101@naver.com 156-032 Dept. SW engeneering, Graduated Soongsil University, Sangdo-Dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea email: feeling127@naver.com (Corresponding Author) 156-032 Dept. SW engeneering, Graduated Soongsil University, Sangdo-Dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea email: kjb123@ssu.ac.kr Collaboration tools of the Agile methodology impact on the OS project evaluation Copyright c 2015 HSST 10 We established this research model. OS projects are geographically dispersed users, but utilizes several tools to communicate online degree in communication is bi-directional emphasis in Agile methodologies that reflect the characteristics of Web 2.0 tools than the traditional one-way communication, openness, communication reported to be satisfied by using the available tools, existing tools and improved tools to investigate the influence on user satisfaction. In this paper eoteumyeo to focus on communication elements of the three factors, further research, we want to make through the final research model studies and the results for each TDD and refactoring.

Open Source Software Development Process Model

The global open source movement has provided software users with more choices, lower software acquisition cost, more flexible software customization, and possibly higher quality software product. Although the development of open source software is dynamic and it encourages innovations, the process can be chaotic and involve members around the globe. An Open Source Software Development (OSSD) process model to enhance the survivability of OSSD projects is needed. This research uses the grounded theory approach to derive a Phase-Role-Skill-Responsibility (PRSR) OSSD process model. The three OSSD process phases -- Launch Stage, Before the First Release, and Between Releases -- address the characteristics of the OSSD process as well as factors that influence the OSSD process. In the PRSR model, different roles/actors are required to have different skills and responsibilities corresponding to each of the three OSSD process phases. This qualitative research contributes to the software development literature as well as open source practice.

When to make proprietary software open source

Software can be distributed closed source (proprietary) or open source (developed collaboratively). While a firm cannot sell open source software, and so loses potential sales revenue, the open source software development process can have a substantial positive impact on the quality of a software, its diffusion, and, consequently, the demand for a complementary product from which the firm does profit. Previous papers have considered the firm's option to release software under a closed or open source license as a simple once and for all binary choice. We extend this research by allowing for the possibility of keeping software proprietary for some optimally determined finite time period before making it open source. Furthermore, we study the impact of switching costs.We show that in case of high in-house R&D costs, the firm always makes the software open source at some point (unless switching itself is too expensive). The timing, however, depends on the initial software quality. On the other hand, when R&D is inexpensive, the firm opens the source code only when the initial level of software quality is low. For intermediate R&D costs, the firm might have the choice between opening the code immediately, opening it at some subsequent and optimally determined time, or keeping it closed forever. Finally we find that whereas high switching costs might prevent firms from adopting an open source business model, low switching costs mainly affect the timing of the opening of the source code.

Understanding Change in Open Source Communities: A Co-evolutionary Framework

Open Source Software Development (OSSD) is becoming increasingly relevant both technically and commercially. Therefore, it is vital for both research and practice to understand why and how OSSD projects evolve over time. However, beyond explaining growth in size of codebases and communities, the literature reveals little about evolution in OSSD processes and community’s structural characteristics. In this study, we analyze two dimensions of OSSD evolution and their interdependencies: coding practices and community structures. By adopting an evolutionary perspective, our study seeks to shed light on why and how communities grow. Thoroughly understanding these dynamics will help scholars and practitioners manage OSSD projects so as to maximize community growth. We illustrate our approach through a case study of a medium-size OSSD project implementing an interpreter for a popular web development language. We find that evolutionary rates and changes in the entropy of coding practices are correlated with changes in the developer community. Our primary contribution is to formulate a novel theoretical framework to better explain the mutually shaping and co-evolving nature of OSS coding practice and communities.

Lessons learned from the development and marketing of Mozilla Firefox 1.0

This case uses first-person sources to put the reader inside the teams that developed and marketed the Firefox browser. A brief overview of the Open Source Software (OSS) development process and the various roles played by members of a software development community, as well as a brief summary of the browser wars of the 1990s that saw Netscape Navigator fall from the dominant browser in the market to a distant second place behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, help provide context for the case. In order to adapt the OSS development model to support a consumer-oriented product, Firefox developers adopted four rules: ‘We want it to be small,’ ‘Let's not keep too many cooks,’ ‘All patches are not created equal,’ and ‘All users are not created equal.’ The development team established a goal of 10 million downloads in the first 100 days and a 10% market share in the first year as measures of success for the new browser. In order to compete with Microsoft in the browser market, the Firefox team needed to leverage the development community to reach millions of potential end users. By providing a web-based structure for collaboration, and through a series of top-down initiatives (providing marketing tools to the community), and bottom-up initiatives (receiving and disseminating marketing ideas from the community at large), the team was able to achieve its marketing goals. In so doing, the SpreadFirefox initiative created a marketing community with roles analogous to a software development community.

Seeing similarity in the face of difference: enabling comparison of online production systems

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to model, analyze and visualize online production systems, such as Wikipedia, open source software development processes, and Flickr. While the final result of the production in these systems depends on the type of product (e.g., content, software, and tags), there are similarities in their modes of actions. The approach taken is to interpret online production systems as social information spaces, and to describe them with a generic vocabulary that is implemented in software. One scenario for open content production is presented using data from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The generic vocabulary is extended by wiki-specific vocabulary; the value of the approach is illustrated with two selected network presentations. The main insight is that key processes in online production systems can be reduced to two basic items and three fundamental relations. Various kinds of online production systems can be mapped onto this vocabulary and the same software solution can be applied for analyzing them. The approach presented here has two practical implications: first, available data from online production systems can be obtained and evaluated more easily. Second, results are comparable because the generic vocabulary serves as a shared understanding of online production systems.

Using the DEMO methodology for modeling open source software development processes

Context Open source software development (OSSD) process modeling has received increasing interest in recent years. These efforts aim to identify common elements in the development process between multiple open source software (OSS) projects. However, the complexity inherent to OSSD process modeling puts significant demands on the modeling language. Objective In this paper, we propose that the Design and Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO) may provide an interesting alternative to develop OSSD process models. DEMO exhibits two unique features within the context of OSSD process modeling. First, DEMO analyzes processes at the ontological level and provides high-level process descriptions, instead of focusing on the implementation level. Second, DEMO studies the communication patterns between human actors, instead of the sequences in which activities are performed. Method We investigate the feasibility of using DEMO to construct OSSD process models by means of a case study. DEMO models were constructed to describe the NetBeans Requirements and Release process. In addition, the quality of these DEMO models was evaluated using a quality framework for conceptual modeling. Results Our results showed that our DEMO models exhibited a high level of abstraction, thereby reducing the complexity of the OSSD process models. In addition, the evaluation of the models developed in this paper by using the quality framework for conceptual modeling showed that the models were of high quality. Conclusions We have shown that the DEMO methodology can be successfully used to model OSSD processes and to obtain abstract and high-quality OSSD process models. However, given some potential drawbacks with respect to understandability and implementability, we primarily propose the use of DEMO within OSSD process modeling as an analysis tool that should be complemented with other techniques and models for communication and reenactment purposes.

Open Source Software and the 'Private-Collective' Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science

Currently two models of innovation are prevalent in organization science. The model assumes returns to the innovator results from private goods and efficient regimes of intellectual property protection. The model assumes that under conditions of market failure, innovators collaborate in order to produce a public good. The phenomenon of open source software development shows that users program to solve their own as well as shared technical problems, and freely reveal their innovations without appropriating private returns from selling the software. In this paper we propose that open source software development is an exemplar of a compound model of innovation that contains elements of both the private investment and the collective action models. We describe a new set of research questions this model raises for scholars in organization science. We offer some details regarding the types of data available for open source projects in order to ease access for researchers who are unfamiliar with these, and also offer some advice on conducting empirical studies on open source software development processes.

Integrating IT-Enabled Social Networks with Transaction Cost Economics and the Resource Based View of the Firm

Integrating IT-Enabled Social Networks with Transaction Cost Economics and the Resource Based View of the Firm

Modeling and simulation of open source development using an agile practice

The goal of this work is to study the effects of the adoption of agile practices on open source development. In particular, we started to evaluate the effects of TDD (Test Driven Development) since it is easer to apply in a distributed environment than most other agile practices. In order to reach this goal we used the simulation modeling approach. We developed a simulation model of open source software development process. The model was tuned using data from a real FLOSS project: Apache HTTP Server. To introduce the TDD practice in our FLOSS simulation model, we made some assumptions based on empirical results. The two FLOSS development models (nonTDD and TDD) were compared. The one incorporating the agile practice yields better results in terms of code quality.

Multimodal Modeling, Analysis, and Validation of Open Source Software Development Processes

Understanding the context, structure, activities, and content of software development processes found in practice has been and remains a challenging problem. In the world of free/open source software development (F/OSSD), discovering and understanding what processes are used in particular projects is important in determining how they are similar to or different from those advocated by the software engineering community. Prior studies have revealed that development processes in F/OSSD projects are different in a number of ways. In this article, we describe how a variety of modeling perspectives and techniques are used to elicit, analyze, and validate software development processes found in F/OSSD projects, with examples drawn from studies of the software requirements process found in the NetBeans.org project.

Open Source Software and the “Private-Collective” Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science

Currently, two models of innovation are prevalent in organization science. The “private investment” model assumes returns to the innovator result from private goods and efficient regimes of intellectual property protection. The “collective action” model assumes that under conditions of market failure, innovators collaborate in order to produce a public good. The phenomenon of open source software development shows that users program to solve their own as well as shared technical problems, and freely reveal their innovations without appropriating private returns from selling the software. In this paper, we propose that open source software development is an exemplar of a compound “private-collective” model of innovation that contains elements of both the private investment and the collective action models and can offer society the “best of both worlds” under many conditions. We describe a new set of research questions this model raises for scholars in organization science. We offer some details regarding the types of data available for open source projects in order to ease access for researchers who are unfamiliar with these, and also offer some advice on conducting empirical studies on open source software development processes.

Open source software development as a special type of academic research: Critique of vulgar Raymondism

Eric Raymond's bazaar model provides a too simplistic view of the open source software (OSS) development process. This paper tries to explore links between open source software development and academic research as a better paradigm for OSS development. Open source software development should better be viewed as a special case of academic research. Viewing OSS this way probably can lead to a better understanding of open source phenomena.