Browsing by Subject "Open Source Software"
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Item Open source software development and maintenance: an exploratory analysis(2009-06-02) Raja, UzmaThe purpose of this research was to create measures and models for the evaluation of Open Source Software (OSS) projects. An exploratory analysis of the development and maintenance processes in OSS was conducted for this purpose. Data mining and text mining techniques were used to discover knowledge from transactional datasets maintained on OSS projects. Large and comprehensive datasets were used to formulate, test and validate the models. A new multidimensional measure of OSS project performance, called project viability was defined and validated. A theoretical and empirical measurement framework was used to evaluate the new measure. OSS project data from SourceForge.net was used to validate the new measure. Results indicated that project viability is a measure of the performance of OSS projects. Three models were then created for each dimension of project viability. Multiple data mining techniques were used to create the models. Variables identified from process, product, resource and end-user characteristics of the project were used. The use of new variables created through text mining improved the performance of the models. The first model was created for OSS projects in the development phase. The results indicated that end-user involvement could play a significant role in the development of OSS projects. It was also discovered that certain types of projects are more suitable for development in OSS communities. The second model was developed for OSS projects in their maintenance phase. A two-stage model for maintenance performance was selected. The results indicated that high project usage and usefulness could improve the maintenance performance of OSS projects. The third model was developed to investigate the affects of maintenance activities on the project internal structure. Maintenance data for Linux project was used to develop a new taxonomy for OSS maintenance patches. These results were then used to study the affects of various types of patches on the internal structure of the software. It was found that performing proactive maintenance on the software moderates its internal structure.Item Open source software maturity model based on linear regression and Bayesian analysis(2009-05-15) Zhang, DongminOpen Source Software (OSS) is widely used and is becoming a significant and irreplaceable part of the software engineering community. Today a huge number of OSS exist. This becomes a problem if one needs to choose from such a large pool of OSS candidates in the same category. An OSS maturity model that facilitates the software assessment and helps users to make a decision is needed. A few maturity models have been proposed in the past. However, the parameters in the model are assigned not based on experimental data but on human experiences, feelings and judgments. These models are subjective and can provide only limited guidance for the users at the best. This dissertation has proposed a quantitative and objective model which is built from the statistical perspective. In this model, seven metrics are chosen as criteria for OSS evaluation. A linear multiple-regression model is created to assign a final score based on these seven metrics. This final score provides a convenient and objective way for the users to make a decision. The coefficients in the linear multiple-regression model are calculated from 43 OSS. From the statistical perspective, these coefficients are considered random variables. The joint distribution of the coefficients is discussed based on Bayesian statistics. More importantly, an updating rule is established through Bayesian analysis to improve the joint distribution, and thus the objectivity of the coefficients in the linear multiple-regression model, according to new incoming data. The updating rule provides the model the ability to learn and improve itself continually.