23 research outputs found
Identifying Unmaintained Projects in GitHub
Background: Open source software has an increasing importance in modern
software development. However, there is also a growing concern on the
sustainability of such projects, which are usually managed by a small number of
developers, frequently working as volunteers. Aims: In this paper, we propose
an approach to identify GitHub projects that are not actively maintained. Our
goal is to alert users about the risks of using these projects and possibly
motivate other developers to assume the maintenance of the projects. Method: We
train machine learning models to identify unmaintained or sparsely maintained
projects, based on a set of features about project activity (commits, forks,
issues, etc). We empirically validate the model with the best performance with
the principal developers of 129 GitHub projects. Results: The proposed machine
learning approach has a precision of 80%, based on the feedback of real open
source developers; and a recall of 96%. We also show that our approach can be
used to assess the risks of projects becoming unmaintained. Conclusions: The
model proposed in this paper can be used by open source users and developers to
identify GitHub projects that are not actively maintained anymore.Comment: Accepted at 12th International Symposium on Empirical Software
Engineering and Measurement (ESEM), 10 pages, 201
Role of Newcomers Supportive Strategies on Socio-Technical Performance of Open Source Projects
The success of open source software (OSS) projects have been studied in previous research. This paper focused on the effect of newcomers’ supportive strategies in OSS projects on the success level of the projects. Our research analyzes the socio-technical commitment to the project as a proxy for success. Data about 453 OSS projects from GitHub.com is collected and analyzed to empirically test the research model. We have applied a clustering technique to explore the dataset attributes. Results show the importance of newcomers’ supportive strategies on the different socio-technical aspects of OSS projects’ leading to success. Also, we have tested the effect of programming language diversity and project profile health on the success of projects. The outcome of this study has both managerial and practical implications
Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers
The maintenance and evolution of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS)
projects demand the constant attraction of core developers. In this paper, we
report the results of a survey with 52 developers, who recently became core
contributors of popular GitHub projects. We reveal their motivations to assume
a key role in FLOSS projects (e.g., improving the projects because they are
also using it), the project characteristics that most helped in their
engagement process (e.g., a friendly community), and the barriers faced by the
surveyed core developers (e.g., lack of time of the project leaders). We also
compare our results with related studies about others kinds of open source
contributors (casual, one-time, and newcomers).Comment: Accepted at CHASE 2018: 11th International Workshop on Cooperative
and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (8 pages
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Supporting Comparison of Developer Profiles across Online Communities
Current software development practices leave a plethora of activities that are archived in version control systems, issue trackers, mailing lists, or Question and Answer (Q&A) forums. Software managers are increasingly using these online activities to better evaluate job candidates. We introduce our tool, Visual Resume, that displays visual overviews of developers’ contributions in code sharing sites (e.g. GitHub) and Q&A forums (e.g. Stack Overflow). The design of the tool is broadly applicable as an approach to summarize and display online contributions.KEYWORDS: software engineering, hiring decisions, online community, Computer programmer
Dificultades de los “recién llegados” a proyectos software en ejecución
No es poco frecuente que, en los proyectos software, sea necesario incorporar nuevos desarrolladores en una etapa avanzada de su ejecución. En estas circunstancias, estos “recién llegados” enfrentan varias dificultades y desafíos que les impiden comenzar rápidamente a contribuir, con sus conocimientos y experiencia previos, a la marcha del proyecto. Este artículo reporta los resultados de un estudio exploratorio-descriptivo dirigido a identificar las dificultades a las que se enfrentan los nuevos miembros del equipo de proyecto al unirse a un proyecto en ejecución, así como identificar las acciones que usualmente se adoptan para mitigar estos problemas y dificultades. El estudio revela que la escasa o nula documentación y la necesidad de conocer el producto en construcción son las principales dificultades, mientras que la asignación de un referente y la provisión de capacitación se mencionan como las principales acciones que las organizaciones suelen tomar para mitigar esos problemas.XIV Workshop de Ingeniería de Software (WIS).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI
An Empirical Study of Bots in Software Development -- Characteristics and Challenges from a Practitioner's Perspective
Software engineering bots - automated tools that handle tedious tasks - are
increasingly used by industrial and open source projects to improve developer
productivity. Current research in this area is held back by a lack of consensus
of what software engineering bots (DevBots) actually are, what characteristics
distinguish them from other tools, and what benefits and challenges are
associated with DevBot usage. In this paper we report on a mixed-method
empirical study of DevBot usage in industrial practice. We report on findings
from interviewing 21 and surveying a total of 111 developers. We identify three
different personas among DevBot users (focusing on autonomy, chat interfaces,
and "smartness"), each with different definitions of what a DevBot is, why
developers use them, and what they struggle with. We conclude that future
DevBot research should situate their work within our framework, to clearly
identify what type of bot the work targets, and what advantages practitioners
can expect. Further, we find that there currently is a lack of general purpose
"smart" bots that go beyond simple automation tools or chat interfaces. This is
problematic, as we have seen that such bots, if available, can have a
transformative effect on the projects that use them.Comment: To be published at the ACM Joint European Software Engineering
Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering
(ESEC/FSE