The role of mentoring and project characteristics for onboarding in open source software projects

Fabian Fagerholm*, Alejandro S. Guinea, Jürgen Münch, Jay Borenstein

*Tämän työn vastaava kirjoittaja

Tutkimustuotos: Artikkeli kirjassa/konferenssijulkaisussaConference article in proceedingsScientificvertaisarvioitu

62 Sitaatiot (Scopus)

Abstrakti

Context: Onboarding is a process that helps newcomers become integrated members of their organisation. Successful onboarding programs can result in increased performance in conventional organisations, but there is little guidance on how to onboard new developers in Open Source Software (OSS) projects. Goal: In this study, we examine how mentoring and project characteristics influence the effectiveness and efficiency of the onboarding process. We study a collaboration program involving a total of nine Open Source Software projects and more than 120 students from different universities around the world as part of Facebook's Education Modernization Program. Method: We use quantitative measurements of source code repositories, issue tracking systems, and discussion fora to examine how newcomers become contributing members of their OSS projects. Results: We found that developers receiving deliberate onboarding support through mentoring were more active at an earlier stage than developers entering projects through conventional means. Also, we found that project size and lifetime influenced onboarding. Conclusion: Empirical decision support can contribute to a more effective onboarding process in OSS projects. Mentor support in critical stages can accelerate the process, but project maturity is also a significant factor that increases the effect of onboarding.

AlkuperäiskieliEnglanti
OtsikkoInternational Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
KustantajaIEEE
ISBN (elektroninen)9781450327749
DOI - pysyväislinkit
TilaJulkaistu - 18 syysk. 2014
OKM-julkaisutyyppiA4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
TapahtumaInternational Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement - Torino, Italia
Kesto: 18 syysk. 201419 syysk. 2014
Konferenssinumero: 8

Julkaisusarja

NimiInternational Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
ISSN (painettu)1949-3770
ISSN (elektroninen)1949-3789

Conference

ConferenceInternational Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
LyhennettäESEM
Maa/AlueItalia
KaupunkiTorino
Ajanjakso18/09/201419/09/2014

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