research-article

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

Authors:

Fabian Fagerholm,

Alejandro S. Guinea,

Jürgen Münch,

Jay BorensteinAuthors Info & Claims

ESEM '14: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

Article No.: 55, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2652524.2652540

Published: 18 September 2014 Publication History

Abstract

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.

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Cited By

Frluckaj HQiu HVasilescu BDabbish LGraziotin DNolte A(2024)From the Inside Out: Organizational Impact on Open-Source Communities and Women's RepresentationProceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM 17th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering10.1145/3641822.3641875(36-50)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641822.3641875
Hang KSchrock TOstrander TBerg RMenezes TWang KStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Industry Mentoring and Internship Experiences at a Community College Baccalaureate Program in Software DevelopmentProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630878(456-462)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630878
Soliman NKang HLatzke MBragg JChang JZhang AKarger D(2024)Mitigating Barriers to Public Social Interaction with Meronymous CommunicationProceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642241(1-26)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Index Terms

The role of mentoring and project characteristics for onboarding in open source software projects
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management

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cover image ACM Conferences

ESEM '14: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

September 2014

461 pages

ISBN:9781450327749

DOI:10.1145/2652524

General Chair:
Maurizio Morisio
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
,
Program Chairs:
Tore Dybå
Sintef, Norway
,
Marco Torchiano
Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 18 September 2014

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Cited By

Frluckaj HQiu HVasilescu BDabbish LGraziotin DNolte A(2024)From the Inside Out: Organizational Impact on Open-Source Communities and Women's RepresentationProceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM 17th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering10.1145/3641822.3641875(36-50)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641822.3641875
Hang KSchrock TOstrander TBerg RMenezes TWang KStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Industry Mentoring and Internship Experiences at a Community College Baccalaureate Program in Software DevelopmentProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630878(456-462)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630878
Soliman NKang HLatzke MBragg JChang JZhang AKarger D(2024)Mitigating Barriers to Public Social Interaction with Meronymous CommunicationProceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642241(1-26)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642241
Azanza MPereira JIrastorza AGaldos A(2024)Can LLMs Facilitate Onboarding Software Developers? An Ongoing Industrial Case Study2024 36th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T)10.1109/CSEET62301.2024.10662989(1-6)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEET62301.2024.10662989
Feng ZKimura KTrinkenreich BSarma ASteinmacher I(2024)Guiding the way: A systematic literature review on mentoring practices in open source software projectsInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107470171(107470)Online publication date: Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107470
Alami APardo RLinåker J(2024)Free open source communities sustainability: Does it make a difference in software quality?Empirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10529-629:5Online publication date: 23-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-024-10529-6
Perpétua SVieira SPortela CSouza M(2023)A Systematic Mapping Study of the Onboarding Process in Software Development OrganizationsProceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3629479.3629500(11-20)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3629479.3629500
Miller CKästner CVasilescu BChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)“We Feel Like We’re Winging It:” A Study on Navigating Open-Source Dependency AbandonmentProceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3616293(1281-1293)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611643.3616293
Fronchetti FShepherd DWiese ITreude CGerosa MSteinmacher IChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)Do CONTRIBUTING Files Provide Information about OSS Newcomers’ Onboarding Barriers?Proceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3616288(16-28)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
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Yu YYang LLindley SWan M(2023)Large-Scale Analysis of New Employee Network DynamicsProceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202310.1145/3543507.3583400(2719-2730)Online publication date: 30-Apr-2023
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