git2net - Mining Time-Stamped Co-Editing Networks from Large git Repositories

Data from software repositories have become an important foundation for the empirical study of software engineering processes. A recurring theme in the repository mining literature is the inference of developer networks capturing e.g. collaboration, coordination, or communication from the commit history of projects. Most of the studied networks are based on the co-authorship of software artefacts defined at the level of files, modules, or packages. While this approach has led to insights into the social aspects of software development, it neglects detailed information on code changes and code ownership, e.g. which exact lines of code have been authored by which developers, that is contained in the commit log of software projects. Addressing this issue, we introduce git2net, a scalable python software that facilitates the extraction of fine-grained co-editing networks in large git repositories. It uses text mining techniques to analyse the detailed history of textual modifications within files. This information allows us to construct directed, weighted, and time-stamped networks, where a link signifies that one developer has edited a block of source code originally written by another developer. Our tool is applied in case studies of an Open Source and a commercial software project. We argue that it opens up a massive new source of high-resolution data on human collaboration patterns.Comment: MSR 2019, 12 pages, 10 figure

Design-Reality Gaps in Open Source Information Systems Development: An Action Research Study of Education and Healthcare Systems in Tanzania

The core concept of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) is that full access to software source code must be granted in order to give individuals the freedom to create, use and distribute software. It emphasises the logic of non-discrimination to create conditions for free action and thought. This makes FOSS to be reminiscent of the Ujamaa policy of Tanzania which argues for all members of the society to have equal rights and equal opportunities. This thesis presents a theoretical and empirical informed analysis of FOSS development in information systems (IS) using cases from the health and education sectors in Tanzania. It focuses on the interplay between the socio-technical conditions of IS in developing countries and the FOSS development approach. The research design was based on participatory action research. The objectives were to illuminate the design-reality gaps in FOSS development in the context of developing countries. Three archetypal situations that exacerbate the reality of FOSS implementation in developing countries were identified as developer – sponsor, global developer – local developer, and local developer – local user gaps. The thesis recommends that, implementing FOSS in IS requires substantial investment on localising the software, training users, and developing support networks. The advantage of FOSS development in developing countries centres on the formation of sustainable collaborative networks through sharing of software and knowledge. These networks are important in helping a developing country to support the day to day customisation and managing of FOSS products. Based on the findings of this study, an alternative conceptualisation of FOSS development which emphasises co-located project organisations as a coping strategy to meet the challenges of social-technical influences is advisable. This is a different approach from working on virtual teams as the literature presents the development and organisation approaches of FOSS

Exploring the Impact of Socio-Technical Core-Periphery Structures in Open Source Software Development

In this paper we apply the social network concept of core-periphery structure to the sociotechnical structure of a software development team. We propose a socio-technical pattern that can be used to locate emerging coordination problems in Open Source projects. With the help of our tool and method called TESNA, we demonstrate a method to monitor the socio-technical core-periphery movement in Open Source projects. We then study the impact of different core-periphery movements on Open Source projects. We conclude that a steady core-periphery shift towards the core is beneficial to the project, whereas shifts away from the core are clearly not good. Furthermore, oscillatory shifts towards and away from the core can be considered as an indication of the instability of the project. Such an analysis can provide developers with a good insight into the health of an Open Source project. Researchers can gain from the pattern theory, and from the method we use to study the core-periphery movements