Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Understanding Requirements for Open Source Software

  • Conference paper
Design Requirements Engineering: A Ten-Year Perspective

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 14))

Abstract

This study presents findings from an empirical study directed at understanding the roles, forms, and consequences arising in requirements for open source software (OSS) development efforts. Five open source software development communities are described, examined, and compared to help discover what differences may be observed. At least two dozen kinds of software informalisms are found to play a critical role in the elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and management of requirements for developing OSS systems. Subsequently, understanding the roles these software informalisms take in a new formulation of the requirements development process for OSS is the focus of this study. This focus enables considering a reformulation of the requirements engineering process and its associated artifacts or (in)formalisms to better account for the requirements when developing OSS systems. Other findings identify how OSS requirements are decentralized across multiple informalisms, and to the need for advances in how to specify the capabilities of existing OSS systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Cheng, B.H.C., Atlee, J.M.: Research Directions in Requirements Engineering. In: Future of Software Engineering (FOSE 2007), pp. 285–303. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Davis, A.M.: Software Requirements: Analysis and Specification. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Jackson, M.: Software Requirements & Specifications: Practice, Principles, and Prejudices. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., Boston (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Kushner, D.: Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. Random House, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Nuseibeh, R., Easterbrook, S.: Requirements Engineering: A Roadmap. In: Finkelstein, A. (ed.) The Future of Software Engineering. ACM Press, New York (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Elliott, M., Scacchi, W.: Free Software Development: Cooperation and Conflict in A Virtual Organizational Culture. In: Koch, S. (ed.) Free/Open Source Software Development, pp. 152–172. IGI Publishing, Hershey (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Elliott, M., Ackerman, M.S., Scacchi, W.: Knowledge Work Artifacts: Kernel Cousins for Free/Open Source Software Development. In: Proc. ACM Conf. Support Group Work (Group 2007), Sanibel Island, FL, pp. 177–186 (November 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Jensen, C., Scacchi, W.: Process Modeling Across the Web Information Infrastructure. Software Process–Improvement and Practice 10(3), 255–272 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Scacchi, W.: Understanding the Requirements for Developing Open Source Software Systems. IEE Proceedings–Software 149(1), 24–39 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Scacchi, W.: Free/Open Source Software Development: Recent Research Results and Methods. In: Zelkowitz, M.V. (ed.) Advances in Computers, vol. 69, pp. 243–295 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Scacchi, W.: Socio-Technical Interaction Networks in Free/Open Source Software Development Processes. In: Acuña, S.T., Juristo, N. (eds.) Software Process Modeling, pp. 1–27. Springer Science+Business Media Inc., New York (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Scacchi, W., Feller, J., Fitzgerald, B., Hissam, S., Lakhani, K.: Understanding Free/Open Source Software Development Processes. Software Process–Improvement and Practice 11(2), 95–105 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Scacchi, W., Jensen, C., Noll, J., Elliott, M.: Multi-Modal Modeling, Analysis and Validation of Open Source Software Development Processes. Intern. J. Internet Technology and Web Engineering 1(3), 49–63 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Mi, P., Scacchi, W.: A Knowledge-based Environment for Modeling and Simulating Software Engineering Processes. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering 2(3), 283–294 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Noll, J., Scacchi, W.: Supporting Software Development in Virtual Enterprises. J. Digital Information 1(4) (February 1999), http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i04/Noll/

  16. Noll, J., Scacchi, W.: Specifying Process-Oriented Hypertext for Organizational Computing. J. Network and Computer Applications 24(1), 39–61 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Scacchi, W.: Understanding Software Process Redesign using Modeling, Analysis and Simulation. Software Process–Improvement and Practice 5(2/3), 183–195 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Zelkowitz, M.V., Wallace, D.: Experimental Models for Validating Technology. Computer 31(5), 23–31 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Klein, H., Myers, M.D.: A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Intrepretive Field Studies in Information Systems. MIS Quarterly 23(1), 67–94 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Ackerman, M.S., Atkinson, C.J.: Socio-Technical and Soft Approaches to Information Requirements Elicitation in the Post-Methodology Era. Requirements Engineering 5, 67–73 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Truex, D., Baskerville, R., Klein, H.: Growing Systems in an Emergent Organization. Communications ACM 42(8), 117–123 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Scacchi, W.: Free/Open Source Software Development Practices in the Computer Game Community. IEEE Software 21(1), 59–67 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Cleveland, C.: The Past, Present, and Future of PC Mod Development. Game Developer, 46–49 (February 2001)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Cagney, G., Amiri, S., Prewararadena, T., Lindo, M., Emili, A.: Silico proteome analysis to facilitate proteomic experiments using mass spectrometry. Proteome Science 1(5) (2003), doi:10.1186/1477-5956-1-5

    Google Scholar 

  25. Oinn, T., Addis, M., Ferris, J., Marvin, D., Senger, M., Greenwood, M., Carver, T., Glover, K., Pocock, M.R., Wipat, A., Li, P.: Taverna: A tool for the composition and enactment of bioinformatics workflows. Bioinformatics J. 20(17), 3045–3054 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Scacchi, W.: Understanding the Development of Free E-Commerce/E-Business Software: A Resource-Based View. In: Sowe, S.K., Stamelos, I., Samoladas, I. (eds.) Emerging Free and Open Source Software Practices, pp. 170–190. IGI Publishing, Hershey (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Wheeler, B.: Open Source 2010: Reflections on 2007, EDUCAUSE, pp. 49–67 (January/February 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bollinger, T.: Use of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of Defense, The MITRE Corporation (January 2, 2001), http://www.terrybollinger.com/dodfoss/dodfoss_html/index.html

  29. Guertin, N.: Naval Open Architecture: Open Architecture and Open Source in DOD, Open Source - Open Standards - Open Architecture, Association for Enterprise Integration Symposium, Arlington VA (March 14, 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Justice, N.: Open Source Software Challenge: Delivering Warfighter Value, Open Source - Open Standards - Open Architecture, Association for Enterprise Integration Symposium, Arlington VA (March 14, 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Riechers, C.: The Role of Open Technology in Improving USAF Software Acquisition, Open Source - Open Standards - Open Architecture, Association for Enterprise Integration Symposium, Arlington VA (March 14, 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Scacchi, W., Alspaugh, T.: Emerging Issues in the Acquisition of Open Source Software within the U.S. Department of Defense. In: Proc. 5th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Starrett, E.: Software Acquisition in the Army. Crosstalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, 4–8 (May 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Weathersby, J.M.: Open Source Software and the Long Road to Sustainability within the U.S. DoD IT System. The DoD Software Tech. News 10(2), 20–23 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Wheeler, D.A.: Open Source Software (OSS) in U.S. Government Acquisitions. The DoD Software Tech. News 10(2), 7–13 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  36. McDowell, P., Darken, R., Sullivan, J., Johnson, E.: Delta3D: A Complete Open Source Game and Simulation Engine for Building Military Training Systems. J. Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology 3(3), 143–154 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  37. DiBona, C., Ockman, S., Stone, M.: Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution. O’Reilly Press, Sebastopol (1999)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  38. Pavlicek, R.: Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development. SAMS Publishing, Indianapolis (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Raymond, E.: The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. O’Reilly and Associates, Sebastopol (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Hine, C.: Virtual Ethnography. SAGE Publishers, London (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Kling, R., Scacchi, W.: The Web of Computing: Computer technology as social organization. In: Yovits, M. (ed.) Advances in Computers, vol. 21, pp. 3–90. Academic Press, New York (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Howison, J., Conklin, M., Crowston, K.: Flossmole: A collaborative repository for floss research, data, and analysis. Intern. J. Information Technology and Web Engineering 1(3), 17–26 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Madey, G., Freeh, V., Tynan, R.: Modeling the F/OSS Community: A Quantitative Investigation. In: Koch, S. (ed.) Free/Open Source Software Development, pp. 203–221. Idea Group Publishing, Hershey (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Elliott, M., Scacchi, W.: Mobilization of Software Developers: The Free Software Movement. Information, Technology and People 21(1), 4–33 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Jensen, C., Scacchi, W.: Role Migration and Advancement Processes in OSSD Projects: A Comparative Case Study. In: Proc. 29th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, Minneapolis, MN, pp. 364–374. ACM Press, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Yamaguchi, Y., Yokozawa, M., Shinohara, T., Ishida, T.: Collaboration with Lean Media: How Open-Source Software Succeeds. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2000), Philadelphia, PA, pp. 329–338. ACM Press, New York (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  47. Kwansik, B., Crowston, K.: Introduction to the special issue: Genres of digital documents. Information, Technology and People 18(2) (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Spinuzzi, C.: Tracing Genres through Organizations: A Sociocultural Approach to Information Design. MIT Press, Cambridge (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Lanzara, G.F., Morner, M.: Artifacts rule! How organizing happens in open software projects. In: Czarniawska, B., Hernes, T. (eds.) Actor Network Theory and Organizing. Copenhagen Business School Press, Copenhagen (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Goguen, J.A.: Formality and Informality in Requirements Engineering (Keynote Address). In: Proc. 4th. Intern. Conf. Requirements Engineering, pp. 102–108. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Cybulski, J.L., Reed, K.: Computer-Assisted Analysis and Refinement of Informal Software Requirements Documents. In: Proceedings Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 1998), Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., pp. 128–135 (December 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Kotonya, G., Sommerville, I.: Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Fogel, K.: Open Source Development with CVS. Coriolis Press, Scottsdale (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Fogel, K.: Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project. O’Reilly Press, Sebastopol (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Ripoche, G., Gasser, L.: Scalable Automatic Extraction of Process Models for Understanding F/OSS Bug Repair. In: Proc. 16th Intern. Conf. Software Engineering & its Applications (ICSSEA 2003), Paris, France (December 2003)

    Google Scholar 

  56. Fielding, R.T.: Shared Leadership in the Apache Project. Communications of the ACM 42(4), 42–43 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Rosenberg, S.: Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three years, 4732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software. Crown Publishers, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  58. Howison, J., Wiggins, A., Crowston, K.: eResearch workflows for studying free and open source software development. In: Russo, B., Damiani, E., Hissam, S., Lundell, B., Succi, G. (eds.) IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Milan, IT. Open Source Development, Communities, and Quality, vol. 275 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  59. Conklin, J., Begeman, M.L.: gIBIS: A Hypertext Tool for Effective Policy Discussion. ACM Transactions Office Information Systems 6(4), 303–331 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Lee, J.: SIBYL: a tool for managing group design rationale. In: Proc. Conf. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 1990), Los Angeles, CA, pp. 79–92. ACM Press, New York (1990)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  61. Robinson, W.: A Requirements Monitoring Framework for Enterprise Systems. Requirements Engineering 11(1), 17–41 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Deshpande, A., Riehle, D.: The Total Growth of Open Source Software. In: Russo, B., Damiani, E., Hissam, S., Lundell, B., Succi, G. (eds.) IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Open Source Development, Communities, and Quality, Milan, IT, vol. 275 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  63. Scacchi, W.: Understanding Free/Open Source Software Evolution. In: Madhavji, N.H., Ramil, J.F., Perry, D. (eds.) Software Evolution and Feedback: Theory and Practice, pp. 181–206. John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  64. Viller, S., Sommerville, I.: Ethnographically informed analysis for software engineers. Int. J. Human-Computer Studies 53, 169–196 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Ackerman, M.S., Halverson, C.A.: Reexamining Organizational Memory. Communications of the ACM 43(1), 59–64 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Kim, A.J.: Community-Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities. Peachpit Press (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  67. Smith, M., Kollock, P. (eds.): Communities in Cyberspace. Routledge, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Software Research, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3425, USA

    Walt Scacchi

Authors
  1. Walt Scacchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Kalle Lyytinen

  2. Loughborough University, UK

    Pericles Loucopoulos

  3. University of Toronto, ON, Canada

    John Mylopoulos

  4. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Bill Robinson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Scacchi, W. (2009). Understanding Requirements for Open Source Software. In: Lyytinen, K., Loucopoulos, P., Mylopoulos, J., Robinson, B. (eds) Design Requirements Engineering: A Ten-Year Perspective. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92966-6_27

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92966-6_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-92965-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-92966-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation