research-article

Turnover in Open-Source Projects: The Case of Core Developers

Authors:

Fabio Ferreira,

Luciana Lourdes Silva,

Marco Tulio ValenteAuthors Info & Claims

SBES '20: Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

Pages 447 - 456

https://doi.org/10.1145/3422392.3422433

Published: 21 December 2020 Publication History

Abstract

In order to know whether FLOSS projects are performing well, researchers have studied the ability of these projects to both attract and retain contributors, and consequently, their turnover, that is, the exit of some contributors and the entry of others. However, most contributors accounted for turnover in FLOSS projects are not active and make one or two contributions per year, which can lead to inaccurate results. In this paper, we compute the turnover of 174 FLOSS projects for each year between 2015 and 2018, considering only core developers. We analyze how the Core Developers' Newcomers and Leavers rates can influence the actionability of these projects, considering the time to fix issues and bugs, and the time to implement enhancements. We found out that 104 (59.7%) out of 174 projects have at least 30% turnover per year, 46 (26.4%) projects exceed 50%, and only 10 (5.7%) projects have less than 10% of annual turnover on average. We also found that projects owned by organizations have a higher Core Developer Turnover (CDT) rate than projects owned by individual users. The results show that the turnover of core developers increases with the size of teams, and it is notably higher in Ruby projects. Finally, we use the Core Developer Newcomers (CDNRate) and Leavers (CDLRate) rates to classify FLOSS projects as Attractive, Unattractive, Stable, Unstable. The results show that projects classified as Unstable (High Number of Core Developers Leavers and Newcomers) take a longer time to fix issues and bugs and to implement enhancements than other groups.

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Jahn LEngelbutzeder PRandall DBollmann YNtouros VMichel LWulf V(2024)In Between Users and Developers: Serendipitous Connections and Intermediaries in Volunteer-Driven Open-Source Software DevelopmentProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642541(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642541
Cury OAvelino GNeto PValente MBritto R(2024)Source code expert identification: Models and applicationInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107445170(107445)Online publication date: Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107445
Sellami KSaied M(2024)Extracting microservices from monolithic systems using deep reinforcement learningEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10547-430:1Online publication date: 12-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-024-10547-4
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Index Terms

Turnover in Open-Source Projects: The Case of Core Developers
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Collaboration in software development
  2. Software organization and properties

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cover image ACM Other conferences

SBES '20: Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

October 2020

901 pages

ISBN:9781450387538

DOI:10.1145/3422392

General Chairs:
Everton Cavalcante
UFRN, Brazil
,
Francisco Dantas
UERN, Brazil
,
Thais Batista
UFRN, Brazil

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

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SBC: Brazilian Computer Society

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New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 December 2020

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Research-article
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Refereed limited

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais

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SBES '20

SBES '20: 34th Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

October 21 - 23, 2020

Natal, Brazil

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Overall Acceptance Rate 147 of 427 submissions, 34%

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Cited By

Jahn LEngelbutzeder PRandall DBollmann YNtouros VMichel LWulf V(2024)In Between Users and Developers: Serendipitous Connections and Intermediaries in Volunteer-Driven Open-Source Software DevelopmentProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642541(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642541
Cury OAvelino GNeto PValente MBritto R(2024)Source code expert identification: Models and applicationInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107445170(107445)Online publication date: Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107445
Sellami KSaied M(2024)Extracting microservices from monolithic systems using deep reinforcement learningEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10547-430:1Online publication date: 12-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-024-10547-4
Capilla RSalamanca VValdezate ARobles G(2024)Can instability variations warn developers when open-source projects boost?Empirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10482-429:4Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-024-10482-4
Miller CKästner CVasilescu BChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)“We Feel Like We’re Winging It:” A Study on Navigating Open-Source Dependency AbandonmentProceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3616293(1281-1293)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611643.3616293
Fang HHerbsleb JVasilescu BChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)Matching Skills, Past Collaboration, and Limited Competition: Modeling When Open-Source Projects Attract ContributorsProceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3616282(42-54)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611643.3616282
Bock TAlznauer NJoblin MApel S(2023)Automatic Core-Developer Identification on GitHub: A Validation StudyACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/359380332:6(1-29)Online publication date: 30-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3593803
Qiu HLieb AChou JCarneal MMok JAmspoker EVasilescu BDabbish L(2023)Climate Coach: A Dashboard for Open-Source Maintainers to Overview Community DynamicsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581317(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581317
Abd Wahab ASarkintudu SIbrahim H(2023)Motivations, Development Challenges and Project Desertion in Public Blockchain: A Pilot StudyAdvances on Intelligent Computing and Data Science10.1007/978-3-031-36258-3_23(265-277)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2023
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Linåker JPapatheocharous EOlsson T(2022)How to characterize the health of an Open Source Software project? A snowball literature review of an emerging practiceProceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Open Collaboration10.1145/3555051.3555067(1-12)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2022
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