oss 2014 - systematic review on barriers faced by newcomers to oss
TRANSCRIPT
Barriers faced by newcomers to
open source projects:
a Systematic Review
Igor Steinmacher
Marco Aurélio Graciotto Silva
Marco Aurélio Gerosa
Context
... and need support on their first steps
“Newcomers are explorers who must orient themselves within an unfamiliar landscape...”
[Degenais et al. 2010]
B. Dagenais, H. Ossher, R.K.E Bellamy, M.P. Robillard and J.P. de Vries, Moving into a new software project landscape, in ICSE 2010.
Context
• A group of PhD students received an assignment:
▫ Contribute significantly to an OSS project
• Result:
▫ All succeeded!!!
• But...
▫ Onboarding was very hard
emails not answered after a week
outdated information on the issue tracker
waste of time on an already existent feature
concurrent work on translation caused by an unread/ unanswered message sent to devs forum
undocumented code/architecture
Goal
Identifying the barriers that newcomers face when contributing to an Open Source Software project
Aggregate the barriers evidenced by different studies and organize them
Scope and Definitions
• Community-based OSS projects
• Newcomer
• Onboarding
• Contribution = source code
Outsider
Onboarding Contributing
Newcomer Contributor Member
Motivation
Attractiveness Retention
Onboarding Barriers
Onboarding
Onboarding Barriers
Method
• Systematic Literature Review
▫ Aims to present a fair evaluation of a research topic by using a trustworthy, rigorous, and auditable methodology [Kitchenham, 2004]
• Analysis of papers using open coding + axial coding (Grounded Theory)
Kitchenham, B.: Procedures for performing systematic reviews. Tech. rep., Keele University and NICTA (2004)
Systematic Literature Review
• Research Question
▫ What are the barriers that hinder newcomers’ onboarding to OSS projects?
• Keywords based on research question:
Systematic Literature Review
• Selecting the studies
Query Digital Libraries
Selection of Primary Studies
Analysis of Primary Studies using open
coding
Author snowballing
Backward snowballing
ACM, IEEE, Scopus SpringerLink
(("OSS" OR "Open Source" OR "Free Software" OR FLOSS OR FOSS) AND (newcomer OR "joining process" OR newbie OR "new developer" OR "new member" OR "new contributor" OR "new member" OR novice OR beginner OR "potential participant" OR retention OR joiner OR onboarding OR "new committer"))
Systematic Literature Review
Studies found and selected
Systematic Literature Review
Resulting map of barriers
Systematic Literature Review
Stakeholder that needs to take action
Mapping Projects Analyzed
Mapping Types of Studies
Mapping Forums
Conclusions
• 21 studies that evidence barriers that can hinder newcomers’ onboarding in OSS projects
• Most evidenced barriers:
▫ newcomers’ previous technical experience
▫ receiving response from community
▫ social interactions with core members
Conclusions
• Social interaction issues is the most thoroughly studied category: 71.42% (15 out of 21) papers
▫ High focus on interaction in mailing lists (MSR)
• Technical issues are under-investigated
▫ code issues are evidenced by only 6 studies
Conclusions
• High diversity of projects studied
• Growth of studies evidencing problems
• No studies aiming specifically at identifying the barriers faced by newcomers to OSS
• Most part of the studies rely on results of quantitative case studies
• Qualitative work is needed to reveal the barriers and needs of the newcomers
Thank you!
Questions?
Igor Steinmacher
Marco Aurélio Graciotto Silva
Marco Aurélio Gerosa