Towards automated open source assessment -- An empirical study

TL;DR

This paper presents an empirical study on automated open source software assessment, introducing a new tool and approach for evaluating OSS project maturity based on analysis of repositories and industry collaboration.

Contribution

It proposes a novel automated assessment tool and methodology for OSS maturity evaluation, validated through analysis and a pilot study with industry relevance.

Findings

Identified patterns in maintenance activities across repositories

Developed a new approach for OSS project maturity assessment

Validated the tool's usefulness in a pilot study

Abstract

The open source software (OSS) assessment has become important given the increased adoption of OSS in commercial product development. Researchers proposed many OSS assessment models. However, little is known about the industrial relevance of the models. In this study, we proposed an automated tool based on the OSS assessment attributes identified together with a European cloud provider company. We analyzed 51 repositories to observe patterns in maintenance activities over their lifetime (from inception to the latest release). Based on the analysis, we propose a novel approach for evaluating the maturity of the OSS project. Finally, we assessed the usefulness of our automated solution in a pilot study.