Dirk Riehle

2022-09-292023-01-20

A Research Model for the Economic Assessment of Inner Source Software Development [HICSS 2023]

Abstract: Inner source is the use of open-source practices within companies. It enables more efficient software development, shortens time-to-market, and lowers costs through increased company-internal collaboration. While existing studies examine social and organizational impact factors on inner source adoption, only a few have looked at measuring and economically assessing inner source. This article presents an overview of current research regarding inner source, its measurement, economic assessment, and impact on businesses and their processes. Based on a systematic literature review we build a research model for economic inner source assessment. This research model shows thematic dependencies between the economic impact of inner source and its measurement. Additionally, it proposes research questions and hypotheses on measuring, economically assessing, and subsequently adopting inner source.

2022-09-282023-01-20

Open Source Software Governance: A Case Study Evaluation of Supply Chain Management Best Practices [HICSS 2023]

Abstract: Corporate open source governance aims to manage the increasing use of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) in companies. To avoid the risks of the ungoverned use, companies need to establish processes addressing license compliance, component approval, and supply chain management (SCM). We proposed a set of industry-inspired best practices for supply chain management organized into a handbook. To evaluate the handbook, we ran a one-year case study at a large enterprise software company, where we performed semi-structured interviews, workshops, and direct observations. We assessed the initial situation of open source governance, the implementation of the proposed SCM best practices, and the resulting impact. We report the results of this study by demonstrating and discussing the artifacts created while the case study company implemented the SCM-focused governance process. The evaluation case study enabled the real-life application and the improvement of the proposed best practices.

2022-09-272023-01-20

A Solution for Automated Grading of QDA Homework [HICSS 2023]

Abstract: Teaching research methods is important in any curriculum that prepares students for an academic career. While theoretical frameworks for qualitative theory building can be adequately conveyed through lecturing, the practices of qualitative data analysis (QDA) cannot. However, using experiential learning techniques for teaching QDA methods to large numbers of students presents a challenge to the instructor due to the effort required for the grading of homework. Any homework involving the coding of qualitative data will result in a myriad of different interpretations of the same data with varying quality. Grading such assignments requires significant effort. We approached this problem by using methods of inter-rater agreement and a model solution as a proxy for the quality of the submission. The automated agreement data serves as the foundation for a semi-automated grading process. Within this paper, we demonstrate that this proxy has a high correlation with the manual grading of submissions.

2022-09-262023-01-20

Challenges to Open Collaborative Data Engineering [HICSS 2023]

Abstract: Open data is data that can be used, modified, and passed on, for free, similar to open-source software. Unlike open-source, however, there is little collaboration in open data engineering. We perform a systematic literature review of collaboration systems in open data, specifically for data engineering by users, taking place after data has been made available as open data. The results show that open data users perform a wide range of activities to acquire, understand, process and maintain data for their projects without established best practices or standardized tools for open collaboration. We identify and discuss technical, community, and process challenges to collaboration in data engineering for open data.

2022-09-242022-09-25

How to Think About a Dependency on Commercial Open Source Software

Another day in open source land, another vendor relicensing away from an open source license to a source-available license. What was new for me this time, however, was that Apache Flink, a community open source project, had a dependency on Lightbend’s Akka, the commercial open source project that relicensed.

2022-07-292022-09-21

Problems, Solutions, and Success Factors in the openMDM User-Led Open Source Consortium [CAIS Journal]

Abstract: Open-source software (OSS) development offers organizations an alternative to purchasing proprietary software or commissioning custom software. In one form of OSS development, organizations develop the software they need in collaboration with other organizations. If the software is used by the organizations to operate their business, such collaborations can lead to what we call “user-led open-source consortia” or “user-led OSS consortia”. Although this concept is not new, there have been few studies of user-led OSS consortia. The studies that examined user-led OSS consortia did so through the lens of OSS, but not from the inter-company collaboration perspective. User-led OSS consortia are a distinct phenomenon that share elements of inter-company collaboration, outsourcing software development, and vendor-led OSS development and cannot be understood by using only a single lens. To close this gap, we present problems and solutions in inter-company collaboration, outsourcing, and OSS literature, and present the results of a single-case study. We focus on problems in the early phases of a user-led open-source consortium, the openMDM consortium, and the solutions applied to these problems. Furthermore, we present the factors which lead this consortium to sustained growth.

2022-06-142022-06-11

The Four Opens: Open Source Beyond the Code (Ildikó Vancsa, IEEE Computer Column)

I’m happy to report that the 21th article in the Open Source Expanded column of IEEE Computer has been published.

Title	The Four Opens: Open Source Beyond the Code
Keywords	—
Authors	Ildikó Vancsa, Open Infrastructure Foundation
Publication	Computer vol. 55, no. 6 (June 2022), pp. 81-84

Abstract: This article describes a set of guiding principles that open infrastructure communities, such as OpenStack, use to create and maintain balanced ecosystems around projects and navigate the challenges and intricacies of open collaboration.

As always, the article is freely available (local copy).

Also, check out the full list of articles.

2022-06-132023-01-29

The Benefits of Pre-Requirements Specification Traceability [RE 2022]

Abstract: Requirements traceability is the ability to trace requirements to other software engineering artifacts. Traceability can be classified as either pre- or post-requirements specifications (RS) traceability. Pre-RS traceability is the ability to trace between requirements and their origin. However, the benefits of pre-RS traceability are often not clear. In this article, we systematically lay out the benefits of pre-RS traceability. We present results from both a literature review and a qualitative survey of practitioners involved with documenting and utilizing such trace links. We find that the benefits strongly depend on the practitioners, their tasks, and the project environment. Awareness of these relationships supports a clearer understanding of the benefits of pre-RS traceability and thus motivates successful implementation of the required practices. The results of our research motivates the adoption of pre-RS traceability and present problem areas for future research.

2022-05-232022-05-22

Call for Article Proposals for Open Source Expanded Column in IEEE Computer Magazine

Readers of this blog may have noticed that I manage a regular (bi-monthly) column on open source for the IEEE Computer magazine (about 60K print subscribers and many more online readers). Article topics are broadly about open source. I’m calling for proposals for new articles in the series. You can read past Open Source Expanded articles on this blog and on the Computer magazine site (all articles are freely accessible).

2022-05-12

Incentivizing German Universities to Capitalize on Their Intellectual Property

In a recent position paper, SPRIN-D, an innovation agency of the German government, proposed that universities license their intellectual property (IP) to university startups in return for virtual shares. This approach is suggested as a practice to work around universities who stall startup licensing deals due to unrealistic assumptions (e.g. lump-sum upfront payment). The problem being solved, however, is only at the end of a long chain of necessary changes, before the specifics of a licensing deal even become relevant.