Towards a reference framework for open source software adoption

Nowadays, the use of Open Source Software (OSS) components has become a driver for the primary and secondary information technology (IT) sector, among other factors, by the openness and innovation benefits that can give to the organizations, regardless of its business model and activities' nature. Nevertheless, IT companies and organizations still face numerous difficulties and challenges when making the strategic move to OSS. OSS is aligned with new challenges, which mainly derive from the way OSS is produced and the culture and values of OSS communities. In fact, OSS adoption impacts far beyond technology, because it requires a change in the organizational culture and reshaping IT decision-makers mindset. Therefore, this research work proposes a framework to support OSS adopters (i.e., software-related organizations that develop software and/or offer services relate to software) to analyze and evaluate the impact of adopting OSS as part of their software products and/or services offered to their customers/users, mainly in terms of their software related activities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Usability and open source software.

Open source communities have successfully developed many pieces of software although most computer users only use proprietary applications. The usability of open source software is often regarded as one reason for this limited distribution. In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open-source development influence usability. We describe how existing human-computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities, of developers and users, to address issues of usability

How do software architects consider non-functional requirements: an exploratory study

© 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Dealing with non-functional requirements (NFRs) has posed a challenge onto software engineers for many years. Over the years, many methods and techniques have been proposed to improve their elicitation, documentation, and validation. Knowing more about the state of the practice on these topics may benefit both practitioners' and researchers' daily work. A few empirical studies have been conducted in the past, but none under the perspective of software architects, in spite of the great influence that NFRs have on daily architects' practices. This paper presents some of the findings of an empirical study based on 13 interviews with software architects. It addresses questions such as: who decides the NFRs, what types of NFRs matter to architects, how are NFRs documented, and how are NFRs validated. The results are contextualized with existing previous work.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Control vs Freedom: How Companies Manage Knowledge Sharing with Open Source Software Communities

Knowledge sharing is essential for successful collaboration between companies and external communities. We lack knowledge regarding the micro-processes companies deliberately introduce to manage knowledge sharing with such outside parties. We research these processes in the context of collaboration between companies and open source software (OSS) communities by posing the question: How do companies design explicit mechanisms to manage knowledge exchange with OSS communities? We conduct an explorative case study at Siemens AG. Siemens introduced a formal template process which can be adapted by the organizational units according to their demands. Results show that the extent to which the process is implemented depends on the level of closeness to core intellectual property of the organizational unit and the intensity of the involvement in OSS communities. Developers use several methods to shortcut the process. Our study contributes to the literature on organizational knowledge sharing, company-involved OSS development, and open innovation of firms

From "community" to "commercial" FLOSS: The case of moodle

This is the post-print version of the final published article that is available from the link below. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc.This paper documents the evolution of Moodle, an advanced Content Management System, and its transition from a purely volunteer-based project to one driven by commercial interests and stakeholders. The study of its evolution provides evidence of the sustainability of its process: increasing amounts of provided effort by developers correspond to similarly increasing produced outputs to the Moodle system. It is also evident how this OSS system, apart from achieving the transition to a successful multisite, collaborative and community-based OSS project, depends more on its community than its commercial partners

The usability of open source software: analysis and prospects

Open source communities have successfully developed many pieces of software although most computer users only use proprietary applications. The usability of open source software is often regarded as one reason for this limited distribution. In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open-source development influence usability. We describe how existing human-computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities, of developers and users, to address issues of usability

Open Source Software: From Open Science to New Marketing Models

-Open source Software; Intellectual Property; Licensing; Business Model.

Motivation, Design, and Ubiquity: A Discussion of Research Ethics and Computer Science

Modern society is permeated with computers, and the software that controls them can have latent, long-term, and immediate effects that reach far beyond the actual users of these systems. This places researchers in Computer Science and Software Engineering in a critical position of influence and responsibility, more than any other field because computer systems are vital research tools for other disciplines. This essay presents several key ethical concerns and responsibilities relating to research in computing. The goal is to promote awareness and discussion of ethical issues among computer science researchers. A hypothetical case study is provided, along with questions for reflection and discussion.Comment: Written as central essay for the Computer Science module of the LANGURE model curriculum in Research Ethic

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse