Evolução da distribuição de conhecimento de software em projetos open source

Abstract

Code ownership refers to the knowledge and responsibility a developer has about a given software code. Previous studies point out a significant relationship between software quality and human factors, reporting that one of the leading causes of software quality degradation is the lack of developers’ knowledge of the source code. This study aims to understand how the code’s knowledge is distributed among developers throughout the life cycle of open source projects. There are two types of developers, the so-called heroes and the small or peripheral ones. Results show that a large part of the knowledge is concentrated in a restricted set of authors, the heroes. However, those who are the main contributors at the project’s beginning did not retain their position throughout its evolution. Knowledge becomes more distributed during the software life cycle, although peripherals developers do not become frequent authors due to limited time and interest. The main ways of spreading knowledge among developers is through contributions in the source code (bug/features), documentation, emails, and informal conversations. This study’s results contribute to deepening the knowledge about software authorship, code ownership, and the distribution of knowledge in the evolutionary process of the software.