Software Process Maturity and the Success of Free Software Projects Martin MICHLMAYR Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering University of Melbourne Victoria, 3010, Australia 1 e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. The success of free software and open source projects has increased interest in utilizing the open source model for mature software development. However, the ad hoc nature of open source development may result in poor quality software or failures for a number of volunteer projects. In this paper, projects from SourceForge are assessed to test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between process maturity and the success of free software and open source projects. This study addresses the question of whether the maturity of particular software processes differs in successful and unsuccessful projects. Processes are identified that are key factors in successful free software projects. The insights gained from this study can be applied as to improve the software process used by free software projects. Keywords. Process maturity, quality improvement, free software, open source Introduction The development model employed in free software and open source projects is unique in many respects. Free software and open source projects are traditionally characterized by two factors that have an impact on quality and project management [8], [7]. The first factor is that they are performed by volunteers, the second that the participants are globally distributed. In addition to these two important characteristics, the development model is also crucially determined by the nature of free software and open source itself; all source code is available and shared with others. Raymond suggests that this open exchange leads to a high level of peer review and user involvement [11], [13].