The role of mentoring and project characteristics for onboarding in open source software projects
The role of mentoring and project characteristics for onboarding in open source software projects
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DOI：
10.1145/2652524.2652540
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发表时间：
2014-09
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Fabian Fagerholm;Alejandro Sánchez Guinea;Jürgen Münch;Jay Borenstein
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文献类型：
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作者：
Fabian Fagerholm;Alejandro Sánchez Guinea;Jürgen Münch;Jay Borenstein
背景：入职是一个帮助新员工融入组织的过程。在传统组织中，成功的入职培训计划可以提高绩效，但是在如何在开源软件（OSS）项目中入职新开发人员方面几乎没有指导。目标：在本研究中，我们考察了指导和项目特征如何影响入职过程的有效性和效率。作为Facebook教育现代化计划的一部分，我们研究了一个合作项目，涉及9个开源软件项目和来自世界各地不同大学的120多名学生。方法：我们使用源代码存储库、问题跟踪系统和讨论论坛的定量度量来检查新人如何成为他们的OSS项目的贡献成员。结果：我们发现，通过指导获得有意的入职支持的开发人员在早期阶段比通过传统方式进入项目的开发人员更活跃。此外，我们发现项目规模和生命周期会影响入职。结论：经验决策支持有助于OSS项目中更有效的入职过程。导师在关键阶段的支持可以加速这个过程，但是项目成熟度也是增加入职效果的一个重要因素。
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.