Open Source Software Development Process: A Systematic Review

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews existing research on open source software development processes, providing a macro process model, detailed activity descriptions, and practical insights for improving OSS project management.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive macro process model of OSS development using BPMN, synthesizes research findings, and provides practical guidelines for OSS project improvement.

Findings

Systematic analysis of 33 studies on OSS process

A generalized OSS development macro process in BPMN notation

Recommendations for OSS community process activities

Abstract

Open Source Software (OSS) has been recognized by the software development community as an effective way to deliver software. Unlike traditional software development, OSS development is driven by collaboration among developers spread geographically and motivated by common goals and interests. Besides this fact, it is recognized by OSS community the need of understand OSS development process and its activities. Our goal is to investigate the state-of-art about OSS process through conducting a systematic literature review providing an overview of how the OSS community has been investigating OSS process over past years identifying and summarizing OSS process activities and their characteristics as well as translating OSS process in a macro process through BPMN notation. As a result, we systematically analysed 33 studies presenting an overview of the state-of-art of researches regarding OSS process, a generalized OSS development macro process represented by BPMN notation with a detailed description of each OSS process activity and roles in OSS environment. We conclude that OSS process can be in practice further investigated by researchers. In addition, the presented OSS process can be used as a guide for OSS projects and being adapted according to each OSS project reality. It provides insights to managers and developers who want to improve their development process even in OSS and traditional environments. Finally, recommendations for OSS community regarding OSS process activities are provided.