Using open source software in product development: a primer

There are important legal aspects involved in using open source software in commercial products. Here are answers to common questions on how to handle these issues to mitigate risk. The use of open source software in industrial products is growing rapidly because its many advantages are well known. However although we in industry understand liability and intellectual-property-right risks fairly well, the implication of OSS-related legal and managerial issues are new to many of us. Legal aspects can vary greatly from one piece of OSS to another depending on the license scheme used. We discuss the major legal aspects and risks in using OSS and how to mitigate them in product development. We've ordered the information in a top-down approach, starting with a definition of OSS, its benefits, and then some risks and experiences with managing it in software engineering practice.     

开放源代码软件开发的基本问题

尽管开放源代码软件运动发展得相当成功,但是普通大众总感到它不易使用。本文讨论当前开放源代码软件开发趋势中的5个基本问题,并提出可能有助于克服这些问题的解决方案。1.　用户界面设计出于某种原因,开放源代码项目在用户界面设计上有许多问题。我猜想用户界面的低质量并非是一种原因造成的。在开放源代码圈内存在一种认识,认为要在完成了真正的工作之后再去设计友好的用户界面,而不把用户界面设计当成真正的工作。然而,如果开放源代码希望真正繁荣起来,使普通大众使用其工具,他们必须承认,大多数用户可能从来不知道开放源代码人员曾为复…     

利用开源软件构建OLAP系统

在开源软件的基础上，实现应用系统的开发，已被证明是一种可靠和有效的方式。提出了一个基于开放源码软件构建联机分析处理系统的技术框架。在实际开发过程中，在遵循相关的许可证制度的前提下，通过对多个相关开源软件的源代码进行详细剖析，结合实际需求进行修改，最终成为一个完整的产品化系统，并成功地投入实际应用。     

Code quality analysis in open source software development

Abstract Proponents of open source style software development claim that better software is produced using this model compared with the traditional closed model. However, there is little empirical evidence in support of these claims. In this paper, we present the results of a pilot case study aiming: (a) to understand the implications of structural quality; and (b) to figure out the benefits of structural quality analysis of the code delivered by open source style development. To this end, we have measured quality characteristics of 100 applications written for Linux, using a software measurement tool, and compared the results with the industrial standard that is proposed by the tool. Another target of this case study was to investigate the issue of modularity in open source as this characteristic is being considered crucial by the proponents of open source for this type of software development. We have empirically assessed the relationship between the size of the application components and the delivered quality measured through user satisfaction. We have determined that, up to a certain extent, the average component size of an application is negatively related to the user satisfaction for this application.     

Network ties and the success of open source software development

Prior network-based research on open source software (OSS) development has focused on the benefit of network ties and assumed all network ties play the same role. We adopt a fine-grained view of network relations to investigate the impact of network ties on the success of OSS development. Through examining the development of OSS projects hosted by SourceForge, we find that co-membership among project teams is an effective mechanism for building network ties, through which knowledge and expertise flows across projects in OSS community and, therefore, contributes to the success of OSS development. However, network ties among projects not only confer benefit, but also incur various cost, and due to the different growth patterns of cost and benefit, network ties have a diminishing return to project success. In addition, we find network ties of leader–follower type and follower–leader type are more beneficial to OSS success than other types of ties, and network ties connecting to projects of later development stages are more beneficial than those connecting to projects of earlier stages. Our study provides useful guidelines and suggestions as to how to leverage the knowledge and expertise of others for successful development of OSS projects.     

Self-organization of teams for free/libre open source software development

This paper provides empirical evidence about how free/libre open source software development teams self-organize their work, specifically, how tasks are assigned to project team members. Following a case study methodology, we examined developer interaction data from three active and successful FLOSS projects using qualitative research methods, specifically inductive content analysis, to identify the task-assignment mechanisms used by the participants. We found that ‘self-assignment’ was the most common mechanism across three FLOSS projects. This mechanism is consistent with expectations for distributed and largely volunteer teams. We conclude by discussing whether these emergent practices can be usefully transferred to mainstream practice and indicating directions for future research.     

Virtual organizational learning in open source software development projects

We studied virtual organizational learning in open source software (OSS) development projects. Specifically, our research focused on learning effects of OSS projects and the factors that affect the learning process. The number and percentage of resolved bugs and bug resolution time of 118 SourceForge.net OSS projects were used to measure the learning effects. Projects were characterized by project type, number and experience of developers, number of bugs, and bug resolution time. Our results provided evidence of virtual organizational learning in OSS development projects and support for several factors as determinants of performance. Team size was a significant predictor, with mid-sized project teams functioning best. Teams of three to seven developers exhibited the highest efficiency over time and teams of eight to 15 produced the lowest mean time for bug resolution. Increasing the percentage of bugs assigned to specific developers or boosting developer participation in other OSS projects also improved performance. Furthermore, project type introduced variability in project team performance.     

Mission-critical development with open source software: lessons learned

Using open source software components in a mission-critical project not only can keep the project within budget but can also result in a more robust and flexible tool. When considering an open source component, prospective users should evaluate the project for several characteristics: maturity, longevity, and flexibility. For greatest benefit, the users should also build and maintain a strong working relationship with the component's developers. We compiled our experiences developing SAP into a developer's guide for those considering using open source in their mission-critical application. In addition to discussing how to evaluate open source components suitability for inclusion in a mission-critical application, the guide suggests strategies for working with open source development teams.     

Managing license compliance in free and open source software development

License compliance in Free and Open Source Software development is a significant issue today and organizations using free and open source software are predominately focusing on this issue. The non-compliance to licenses in free and open source software development leads to the loss of reputation and the high costs of litigation for organizations. Towards an automated compliance management, we use the Open Digital Rights Language to implement the clauses of open source software licenses in a machine interpretable way and propose a novel algorithm that analyzes compatibility between free and open source software licenses. Also, we describe a framework that inductively manages compliance of license clauses in a free and open source software development. We simulate and evaluate the formalized license compliance management by analyzing a real-time open source software project GRASS.     

化学信息学与开源软件

化学信息学研究需要性能强大而又能随时修订的、开放性的软件工具。通过回顾自由软件到开源软件的发展历史,展示开源式程序开发的丰富成就,包括操作系统如Linux、社区如SourceForge和我国的共创软件联盟等,澄清与copyright针锋相对的copyleft式版权概念,介绍并比较多种软件许可证,对开源软件的发展机制进行简要分析,认为开源软件是满足化学信息学要求的最佳选择。     

A systematic review of research on open source software in commercial software product development

Context

The popularity of the open source software development in the last decade, has brought about an increased interest from the industry on how to use open source components, participate in the open source community, build business models around this type of software development, and learn more about open source development methodologies. There is a need to understand the results of research in this area.

Objective

Since there is a need to understand conducted research, the aim of this study is to summarize the findings of research that has ben carried out on usage of open source components and development methodologies by the industry, as well as companies’ participation in the open source community.

Method

Systematic review through searches in library databases and manual identification of articles from the open source conference. The search was first carried out in May 2009 and then once again in May 2010.

Results

In 2009, 237 articles were first found, from which 19 were selected based on content and quality, and in 2010, 76 new articles were found from which four were selected. Twenty three articles were identified in total.

Conclusions

The articles could be divided into four categories: open source as part of component based software engineering, business models with open source in commercial organization, company participation in open source development communities, and usage of open source processes within a company.     

Leadership characteristics and developers’ motivation in open source software development

Open Source Software (OSS) is generally developed by interested professionals who have decided to participate in the process. The presence of effective leaders who both steer the development and motivate the developers is crucial to ensure a successful product. Using path-goal theory and built on leadership and motivation theories, we proposed and tested a model that can be used to assess the relationship between an OSS project leader's leadership style and a developer's motivation to contribute to the software development. We specifically decomposed the leadership and motivation construct to understand the hidden mechanisms by which leadership impacts motivation. A set of survey data collected from 118 OSS developers on Sourceforge.net was used to test our hypotheses. Our results indicate that leaders’ transformational leadership is positively related to developers’ intrinsic motivation and that leaders’ active management style is positively related to the developers’ extrinsic motivation.     

On the security of open source software

Abstract With the rising popularity of so‐called ‘open source’ software there has been increasing interest in both its various benefits and disadvantages. In particular, despite its prominent use in providing many aspects of the Internet's basic infrastructure, many still question the suitability of such software for the commerce‐oriented Internet of the future. This paper evaluates the suitability of open source software with respect to one of the key attributes that tomorrow's Internet will require, namely security. It seeks to present a variety of arguments that have been made, both for and against open source security and analyses in relation to empirical evidence of system security from a previous study. The results represent preliminary quantitative evidence concerning the security issues surrounding the use and development of open source software, in particular relative to traditional proprietary software.     

JSMAA: open source software for SMAA computations

Most software for multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) implement a small set of compatible methods as a closed monolithic program. With such software tools, the decision models have to be input by hand. In some applications, however, the model can be generated using external information sources, and thus it would be beneficial if the MCDA software could integrate in the comprehensive information infrastructure. This article motivates for the need of model generation in the methodological context of stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA), and describes the JSMAA software that implements SMAA-2, SMAA-O and SMAA-TRI methods. JSMAA is an open source and divided in separate graphical user interface and library components, enabling its use in systems with a model generation subsystem.     

开源软件自动化评估证据框架

互联网上已形成了规模巨大、种类丰富的开源软件资源。如何准确、快速地判断一个开源项目的各种可信属性是否满足需求是当前软件工程领域研究的热点。深入分析已有开源软件评估模型,总结互联网上软件质量相关的各种信息,提出了面向开源软件的可信评估证据框架,并基于该框架构建了一种开源软件可信证据查询平台。利用该平台能够极大地提高评估效率,用户可以准确、快速、全面地了解相关软件项目的各种信息。最后,以一个知名开源软件证实了该证据框架及证据查询平台的可行性。     

Organizational adoption of open source software

Organizations and individuals can use open source software (OSS) for free, they can study its internal workings, and they can even fix it or modify it to make it suit their particular needs. These attributes make OSS an enticing technological choice for a company. Unfortunately, because most enterprises view technology as a proprietary differentiating element of their operation, little is known about the extent of OSS adoption in industry and the key drivers behind adoption decisions. In this article we examine factors and behaviors associated with the adoption of OSS and provide empirical findings through data gathered from the US Fortune-1000 companies. The data come from each company's web browsing and serving activities, gathered by sifting through more than 278 million web server log records and analyzing the results of thousands of network probes. We show that the adoption of OSS in large US companies is significant and is increasing over time through a low-churn transition, advancing from applications to platforms. Its adoption is a pragmatic decision influenced by network effects. It is likelier in larger organizations and those with many less productive employees, and is associated with IT and knowledge-intensive work and operating efficiencies.     

Ontological modeling for software application development

The analysis of application for software development is usually guided and, hence, constrained by concepts and constructs of structured and object-oriented programming languages. It produces an analysis model that bears no essential difference from a software design. Here, we introduce an ontological Weltanschauung in application analysis for understanding essentials and novelties, which are obscured in structured and object-oriented methods of application analysis. The ontological viewpoint is reified with a systemic framework, or simply an ontology, which can be related to software design. Thus, we can apply ontological analysis in software development.     

Simulating software development processes

One of the main factors affecting any product development schedule is rework. In the consumer product market, the risk of rework is often measured against the need to get to market quickly. This frequently happens in the software market as well; products are released with known bugs and then upgraded after user testing. Therefore, software development organizations may choose to limit the iterations of defect correction to meet schedules or control costs. The decision to release software after a certain point is a business decision, and there is little written about business decisions in any software-related literature, including the SEI's Capability Maturity Model. A quick review of software project management literature suggests that rework is implicit in software estimating techniques, but is not explicit. The amount of rework and the manner in which it is treated are very important factors in determining software schedules and cost