Free Software Engineering: A Field to Explore

Gonzáles-Barahona and RoblesUPGRADE Vol. IV No. 4 August 2003

Free Software Projects

• Nascem como iniciativa isolada e particular

• Usuários são co-desenvolvedores• Divulgação “boca-a-boca”• Teste massificado pelos usuários• Gerência de versões é complexa e

“bem-definida”

Open Source Projects

• (Sun Jun 5 21:56:46 BRT 2005) > 100,000 projects!

      Communications (11651 projects)      Database (4798 projects)      Desktop Environment (2508 projects)      Education (2573 projects)      Formats and Protocols (368 projects)      Games/Entertainment (10958 projects)      Internet (19080 projects)      Multimedia (9851 projects)      Office/Business (4307 projects)      Other/Nonlisted Topic (1880 projects)      Printing (371 projects)      Religion and Philosophy (229 projects)      Scientific/Engineering (7928 projects)      Security (2121 projects)      Sociology (307 projects)      Software Development (14232 projects)      System (15387 projects)      Terminals (477 projects)      Text Editors (2152 projects)

Causas de Descontinuidade de Projetos SW Livre

• Falta de interesse, tempo ou motivação– mudança de liderança nos projetos impactam

sua continuidade• Code Forking

– cada usuário tem acesso ao código e pode alterá-lo e redistribuí-lo sem o conhecimento do líder do projeto

Free Software EngineeringResume

• “A Field to Explore”• “is still in its infancy” (2003!)• “How to create free software? Issues:

– Classification of free software projects– Creation of a methodology– Methods + classification + models ++

Simulation (intelligent agents) = Free SW Engineering”

Process Implementation

Sarah SheardSoftware Productivity Consortium

Thursday, July 3, 2003

or,We’ve documented all our

processes—what’s left to do?

So what does it take?

1. Manage as a project 2. Obtain management support 3. Establish policy 4. Establish measurement baseline 5. Train employees and managers 6. Tailor processes7. Maintain process assets 8. Ensure processes are being used 9. Learn Lessons 10. Improve Processes 11. Appraise the organization

Process Implementation Requires Everyone!

• Senior management sets the tone and ensures other managers make PI happen

• SEPG drives the process improvement program to its goals

• Projects review processes, tailor standard processes, use their tailored versions, and recommend improvements

• QA audits independently

Funciona para SW Livre?

• Adaptação de Processos de 1990?• 2005! Distributed Development...

• O que fazer?– Ler– Praticar– Montar fábricas e avaliar...

A Framework for creating hybrid-open source software

communities

Srinarayan Sharma et. al.

Info Systems (2002), 12.

Introduction

• OSS model is a fundamentally new and revolutionary way to develop software

• organizations are having difficulty building a business model around the open source paradigm

• not all OSS initiatives have been successful

• Framework for creating Hybrid-OSS communities

The OSS model

• Three dimensions:– structure, process and culture

structure culture

process

Eletronic communication

Multicultural community

Values: reciprocity, gift giving, reputation, ideology

Core assumptions

Division of labour

Co-ordination mechanisms

Distribution od decision-making

Organizational boundaries

Informal structure

Political structure

Legitimate basis of authority

OSS development process

• Problem discovery• Finding volunteers• Solution identification• Code development and testing• Code change review• Code commit and documentation• Release management

Framework for creating Hybrid-

OSS communitiesPrinciples:• Community building• Community governance

– Shared governance– Membership management– Incentives and rewards

• Community infrastructure

Discussion

... open source communities versus Software Factories?

• personal time and autonomy... freelancers

... project-oriented

• ... there are several avenues for future research– ... to refine the proposed framework and validate it

empirically

Google – Summer Code

• The Summer of Code is Google's program designed to introduce students to the world of open source software development!!!! The Deadline is June 14th

http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html