Sherae Daniel's Projects in Progress
From Information Systems at Pitt Business
Contents |
[edit] Absorptive Capacity and OSS Projects
| (with Ritu Agarwal and Katherine Stewart) | | |
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Presented at International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2006 http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2006/59/ University of Minnesota, University of Pittsburgh and Babson | | |
| This study explores antecedents of OSS project performance from a knowledge-focused perspective. In particular, it examines the development and effects of absorptive capacity for an OSS project. In describing how OSS absorptive capacity is developed, this study identifies characteristics and behaviors of project participants that indicate an OSS project’s absorptive capacity. We underscore the importance of the characteristics and behaviors of two different sets of project participants: those in the Internet-based user community (IBUC) and those in the development group. Archival data about 74 OSS projects that use the SourceForge platform are examined to empirically test the hypotheses developed. This study makes several contributions to theory and practice. In exploring the effect of absorptive capacity in an OSS project, this study identifies the nuances of the construct when it is used to understand non-traditional organizations. In particular we suggest some cases when increased knowledge acquisition is associated with decreased performance; for example, increased IBUC relationships with other projects decreases development activity. This study also extends the OSS literature by specifically linking characteristics and behaviors of the IBUC to development activity. For instance, a dynamic IBUC that has strong communication with the development group is associated with improved development activity. These findings inform project managers regarding the participants to target and behaviors to encourage that will lead to superior performance for an OSS project. |  | 
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[edit] OSS Projects and Complexity Evolution
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(with Katherine Stewart and Dave Darcy) Presented at Carnegie Mellon, Michigan State, University of Minnesota and Lero, University of Limerick HICSS 2010 (Best Paper Nomination), ICSE 2005 | 
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| OSS is a growing phenomenon, representing an increasing amount of the software engineering work that is being done. OSS projects represent new means of collaborating to build, distribute, and support software. Prior work on OSS has tended to focus on either the “big” projects such as Linux, Apache, etc, or on “the rest,” such as the population (or a sample) of SF. Very few have made distinctions among “the rest” (i.e., beyond dead and not dead, or better performing and worse performing). This study provides a finer-grained view of the landscape of OSS development projects as viewed through the lens of software evolution. In doing so, we make three main contributions to the literature. First, we combine statistical analysis of objective longitudinal data on software complexity with qualitative analysis of information from projects’ public websites to elaborate a categorization scheme that differentiates among 6 types of OSS projects. Second, in developing this categorization scheme we add to the work on software evolution by identifying a set of projects in which aspects of complexity (size and structural complexity) move in different directions over time; in particular a set of projects for which structural complexity is decreased as size is increased. The identification of this category of projects is unique in that most prior work has shown positive correlations between size and structural complexity. The third contribution of this study is methodological; we demonstrate the application of a new statistical technique, FDA, which is useful in overcoming challenges in studying software evolution. | |
| Statistical Science 2006 | |
| This paper explores the application of functional data analysis (FDA) as a means to study the dynamics of software evolution in the open source context. Several challenges in analyzing the data from software projects are discussed, an approach to overcoming those challenges is described, and preliminary results from the analysis of a sample of open source software (OSS) projects are provided. The results demonstrate the utility of FDA for uncovering and categorizing multiple distinct patterns of evolution in the complexity of OSS projects. These results are promising in that they demonstrate some patterns in which the complexity of software decreased as the software grew in size, a particularly novel result. The paper reports preliminary explorations of factors that may be associated with decreasing complexity patterns in these projects. The paper concludes by describing several next steps for this research project as well as some questions for which more sophisticated analytical techniques may be needed. | |
[edit] Developer and User Networks in OSS Projects
| (with Ilana Diamant) | |
| Presented at International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2008 | |
| http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2008/122 | |
| The capability to acquire knowledge is a key determinant of success for organizations that seek to innovate, and a strong social network can facilitate it. Open source software (OSS) project networks in which relationships are defined by developers working on two projects have been shown to facilitate project success. Users also participate in multiple OSS projects, but the effect of networks defined by user relationships has not been examined. We suggest that users can serve as a channel through which knowledge, especially usability- related knowledge, can move between projects. We draw on open source and the broader IS literature and propose distinct hypotheses for the effect of the network characteristics of user- and developer networks on project performance. Specifically, because the users typically have a less extended and involved type of participation focused on usability concerns, the effect of network characteristics defined by user relationships is expected to be different from the effect of the network defined by the developers, whose participation is likely to be focused more on coding. A sample of projects from sourceforge.net will be used to explore the hypotheses developed. In developing and testing these hypotheses, this research is among the first to suggest that the impact of network characteristics on project success differs with the role of the participant who represents the relationship. This distinction has practical implications for managers seeking to create successful OSS projects. | |
[edit] Anonymous Contributions and OSS Projects
| (with Rachel Chung) |  |
| Presented at Academy of Management OCIS Division 2009 | |
| Increasingly, work is conducted in distributed environments and managers can opt to allow anonymous contributors, making the impact of anonymous contributions on project performance a critical question. While some theorists suggest anonymous contributors will enhance group outcomes because anonymity focuses attention on group goals, others argue that, without the potential for sanctions, anonymous individuals will act in self-enhancing ways that impede group performance. We seek to understand how anonymous contributions impact knowledge-intensive, heavily coordinated work designed to innovate. The open source software (OSS) development environment provides unprecedented opportunities for anonymous contributors to collaborate on a software project. With the study reported here, we contribute theoretically by exploring the nuances of the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) using a knowledge lens to understand how anonymity impacts OSS development projects. We find that anonymous contributions have a positive impact on OSS performance when the focus of the development effort is on applications intended for use by end users. Implications of these findings for research and managerial practices are discussed. |
[edit] The Survival of OSS Projects
| (with Shobha Chengalur-Smith and Anna Sidorova) | | |
| This paper examines the factors that influence the long-term sustainability of FLOSS projects. A model of project sustainability based on organizational ecology is developed and tested empirically. Data about activity and contribution patterns over the course of five years for 492 projects registered with SourceForge is analyzed. Our results suggest that the size of the project’s development base is a good predictor of the project’s ability to attract and retain user and developer resources later in the project’s life. The density of the population of organizations in the niche occupied by the project and the age of the project played differential roles in explicating the ability of the project to attract and retain developer and user resources. Greater niche density increases the likelihood of attracting and retaining developer, but not user resources; conversely, the age of the project influences the ability to attract and retain user, but not developer resources. Regardless, the overall ability to attract and retain resources is positively related to project sustainability, i.e. the project’s ability to maintain developer activity over the long term. Implications of the results for future research and practice are discussed. |
[edit] Projects In Progress
- OSS Group Workflow Routines
