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Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery  2019, Vol. 3 Issue (10): 110-117    DOI: 10.11925/infotech.2096-3467.2018.0830
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Developers’ Collaboration Behaviors and Success of Open Source Projects
Jun Dai(),Shixin Guo,Hui Wang,Yingchi Liao
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
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Abstract  

[Objective] This study investigates the relationship between the success of open source projects and collaborative development behaviors. [Methods] Firstly, we retrieved Apache project data from GitHub to quantify successful projects and collaborative development behaviors. Then, we examined the correlations between behavioral characteristics and success with regression analysis. [Results] We found the impacts or Exp(B) of “proportion of core members”, “frequency of code submission”, and “the average number of file modifications” on the technically successful projects, were 0.037, 1.427 and 0.327. For the impacts of same characteristics on the commercially successful projects, the standard coefficient were -0.426, 0.221, and 0.195. [Limitations] The distribution of samples and the influencing factors need some revisions. [Conclusions] This paper provides new directions for the management of successful open source software projects.

Key wordsOpen Source Software      Apache Software Foundation      Collaboration Behaviors      Success of Projects     
Received: 25 July 2018      Published: 25 November 2019
ZTFLH:  G311  
Corresponding Authors: Jun Dai     E-mail: daijun3@163.com

Cite this article:

Jun Dai,Shixin Guo,Hui Wang,Yingchi Liao. Developers’ Collaboration Behaviors and Success of Open Source Projects. Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery, 2019, 3(10): 110-117.

URL:

https://manu44.magtech.com.cn/Jwk_infotech_wk3/EN/10.11925/infotech.2096-3467.2018.0830     OR     https://manu44.magtech.com.cn/Jwk_infotech_wk3/EN/Y2019/V3/I10/110

Project Sha Author Name Author Email Revise Date Committer Name Committer Email Commit Date Parent Sha
项目 散列值 修改者姓名 修改者邮箱 修改时间 提交者姓名 提交者邮箱 提交时间 上一次提交散列值
Project Sha Parent Sha FileSha File Name Status Revise Date Commitdate Additions Deletions Changes
项目 散列值 上一次提交
散列值
文件散列值 文件名 改动状态 修改时间 提交时间 增加行数 删除行数 总变动行数
因素 对照因素分析Apache基金会项目对应的特点
影响技术成功的因素 ①开源许可证类型 ①开源许可证类型, Apache软件基金会项目的开源许可证都是Apache许可证, 而且项目管理和代码风格规范上都是按照Apache软件基金会的要求, 所以③职责分配和⑤模块化程度基本一致, 因此这三个因素的影响可以排除。
③职责分配
⑤模块化程度
②开发者基数
④复杂度 一个软件项目的④复杂度很难衡量, Herraiz等通过对开源软件的研究发现大多数代码复杂性度量与一个更简单的度量: 代码行数高度相关[23]。所以用项目“总代码行数”来代替“复杂度”作为控制变量。同时, Yang等在对开源软件影响因素的研究中也将“总代码行数”作为研究的控制变量[22]
影响市场成功的因素 ①开源许可证类型 不予考虑。
②用户基数 真实的项目使用用户数笔者无从得知, 但本文研究项目都来自于GitHub平台, 项目的潜在用户是所有GitHub用户, 所以不考虑②用户基数因素的影响。
③开发者基数
④项目翻译 ④项目翻译, 因Apache软件基金会是美国公司, 并且Apache软件基金会各个项目的官网以及其项目在GitHub上的语言都是英语, 所以本文研究对象的“项目翻译”基本一致。
因变量 控制变量 自变量
技术
成功
开发者总数、总代码
行数、项目年龄
核心成员占比、代码提交频率、平均提交修改时间差、文件平均修改次数、修改文件占比
B S.E, Wals df Sig. Exp (B)
开发者总数 -.003 .002 3.295 1 .070 .997
总代码行数 .000 .000 .329 1 .566 1.000
项目年龄 .002 .000 35.143 1 .000 1.002
核心成员占比 -3.309 1.189 7.748 1 .005 .037
代码提交频率 .355 .151 5.550 1 .018 1.427
文件平均修改次数 -1.119 .561 3.985 1 .046 .327
常量 .533 .944 .319 1 .572 1.704
因变量 控制变量 自变量
商业
成功
开发者总数、项目年龄 核心成员占比、代码提交频率、平均提交修改时间差、文件平均修改次数、修改文件占比
模型 非标准化系数 标准系数 t Sig. 共线性统计量
B 标准误差 试用版 容差 VIF
(常量) 1.122 .351 3.194 .002
开发者总数 .001 .000 .267 4.105 .000 .627 1.594
项目年龄 .000 .000 .183 3.032 .003 .725 1.379
核心成员占比 -1.246 .201 -.426 -6.184 .000 .558 1.791
修改文件占比 1.430 .366 .221 3.906 .000 .828 1.207
文件平均修改次数 .311 .093 .195 3.345 .001 .775 1.290
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