An evaluative framework to measure the maturity of Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) from user perspectives

Free/Open Source (F/OSS) refers to software that is available for free download and isusually packaged along with its source code. The F/OSS phenomenon has gathered animmense impetus in the past one or two decades. F/OSS differs from commercial orproprietary software in terms of its cost free availability as well as the openness of its sourcecode. Another difference between commercial software and F/OSS is the licensing; F/OSSlicense should not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a componentof aggregate software. F/OSS software is developed by thousands of developers, who aregeographically dispersed and they may contribute to F/OSS projects by writing code, testingsoftware, debugging software, documentation and design. Other set of individuals who forma massive constituent group of F/OSS are the F/OSS users i.e. people who actually adoptthe released software for personal and/or organizational use. It is very important to haveproper maturity models to evaluate F/OSS Software. Such models would enable F/OSSusers to evaluate the F/OSS and choose the best one for their requirements. Softwarematurity estimating models and the evaluation of proprietary software models exist, butcannot be applied to F/OSS, because the teams that are developing these two differenttypes of software are driven by different motives (Scepanovic et. al., 2011). Moreoverexisting maturity frameworks are process oriented whereas users would like them to beproduct oriented so that users could be able to evaluate different software products.This doctoral research is an attempt to create a unique and innovative maturity model tomeasure the quality of F/OSS software from user acceptance perspectives. A thorough andmeticulous literature review was conducted in the initial phase of the research and thesedesk studies have made crucial contributions to the research. A list of F/OSS useracceptance indicators were identified through review of existing literature in the field. This listof indicators was later refined through Pilot Study. Expert opinion was solicited to confirm theimportance of the literature based indicators. On basis of the Pilot Study findings, twoindicators were removed from the list and 21 indicators were finalized for the construction ofthe research framework. These indicators were then mounted on a Questionnaire Sheet todraw out user perspectives on the indicators. Questionnaire survey was administered usingtwo methods - traditional and web based survey and data was collected. The collected datawas statistically tested to identify 5 factor groups. These statistically formed factors weregiven proper titles with respect to the characteristics of the indicators contained within them.Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to identify the relative importance of theresearch indicators within factor groups and to find the importance ranks between the factorsthemselves. AHP Expert opinion study was carried out to gain expert judgments on the relative importance levels among the indicators and factors. These factors and theirrespective indicators were then used to create a 3 Stage Maturity Framework. Thispreliminary framework defined an evaluation based structure to assess the maturity stage ofeach research indicators. The maturity stages achieved by the indicators were used toevaluate the factor maturity stage with help of AHP analysis. Finally the maturity stagesassessed for various factors helped in evaluating the overall maturity of the F/OSS software,through application of AHP. The preliminary framework was further refined through ExpertInterviews. This refined 3 Stage Maturity Framework forms the main output of this research.The maturity framework was finally validated through three case studies based on selectedF/OSS Software - FreeCAD, OpenProj and Sweet Home 3D. Each of the 21 indicators forthe mentioned F/OSS Software were evaluated on basis of the refined framework and AHPwas used to quantify the maturity stages for the factors and finally the overall maturity of theF/OSS software was calculated. There exist maturity models for F/OSS Software; howevermost of them require a level of technical expertise to use them. The novelty anddistinctiveness of the 3 Stage Maturity Framework developed in this research, lies in the factthat any native user with no technical expertise may be able to use it to evaluate any givenF/OSS Software.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral (Level 8)

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Akre, VL

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1337502

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1337502