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Insights into Developers’ Abandonment in FLOSS Projects

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Intelligent Sustainable Systems

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 333))

Abstract

The development of successful software relies on the efforts of volunteer contributors that are globally dispersed and co-operate with each other through the Internet. The success of an OSS (Open Source Software) project depends on the attraction of new members for participation and retention of old developers. The crew members do not receive financial aid and are not bound by any employment contract. Therefore, they have freedom to join or leave the project as per their convenience. After continuous participation in the project, some developers left the project or join some other project that provides more opportunities and career growth. The major cause behind developers’ dropout is that they face many problems during early contribution. Therefore, developer dropout is the main issue in the development of an effective project. The existing literature examined the joining patterns, process of joining, motivation/retention, and hitches of newcomers/developers. But the area of developer abandonment has not achieved enough maturity. In order to predict developers’ turnover in OSS projects and overcome this issue, it is important to analyze the various factors that force developers to leave the project and influence their permanence. The primary goal of the current study is to survey the literature to analyze developers’ abandonment and several factors reported in the existing literature that impact the dropout of contributors in OSS projects. Our study results confirmed that most of the studies explored the different factors that lead to dropout of developers and few studies investigated the impact of abandonment on the project. The current study will help OSS project administrators to comprehend the predictive factors in abandonment. Based on this knowledge, they can make decisions in advance to tackle this problem.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of the paper will be appreciative of UGC (University Grants Commission), Govt. of India for providing economic aid under the scheme of Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship to carry out this research work. The authors are also thankful for the infrastructural as well as academic support provided by Computer Science Department of Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, Punjab.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India

    Rajdeep Kaur & Kuljit Kaur

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  1. Rajdeep Kaur
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  2. Kuljit Kaur
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Correspondence to Rajdeep Kaur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK

    Atulya K. Nagar

  2. Department of Computer Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia

    Dharm Singh Jat

  3. University of Costa Rica, Curridabat, Costa Rica

    Gabriela Marín-Raventós

  4. Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Durgesh Kumar Mishra

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Kaur, R., Kaur, K. (2022). Insights into Developers’ Abandonment in FLOSS Projects. In: Nagar, A.K., Jat, D.S., Marín-Raventós, G., Mishra, D.K. (eds) Intelligent Sustainable Systems. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 333. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6309-3_69

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