@article{scacchi02,
        title = {Understanding the requirements for developing open source softwaresystems},
        author = {Walt Scacchi},
        journal = {IET Software},
        number = 1,
        pages = {24-39},
        volume = 149,
        year = 2002,
        url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=999088},
        issn = {1462-5970},
	doi = {10.1049/ip-sen:20020202},
	description = {Welcome to IEEE Xplore 2.0: Understanding the requirements for developing open source softwaresystems},
	abstract = {Presents an initial set of findings from an empirical study of
social processes, technical system configurations, organisational
contexts and interrelationships that give rise to open software. The
focus is directed at understanding the requirements for open software
development efforts, and how the development of these requirements
differs from those traditional to software engineering and requirements
engineering. Four open software development communities are described,
examined and compared to help discover what these differences may be.
Eight kinds of software informalisms are found to play a critical role
in the elicitation, analysis, specification, validation and management
of requirements for developing open software systems. Subsequently,
understanding the roles these software informalisms take in a new
formulation of the requirements development process for open source
software is the focus of the study. This focus enables the consideration
of a reformulation of the requirements engineering process and its
associated artefacts, or (in)formalisms, to better account for the
requirements for developing open source software systems},
	biburl = {http://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2888fa5f167be9bd60a39c47ee37d2cfd/neilernst},
	keywords = {requirements evolution oss}
}

@article{scacchi06b,
        title = {Understanding Free/Open Source Software Development Processes},
        author = {Walt Scacchi and Joseph Feller and Brian Fitzgerald and Scott Hissam and Karim Lakhani},
        journal = {Software Process: Improvement and Practice},
        month = {March/April},
        number = 2,
        pages = {95 --105},
        volume = 11,
        year = 2006,
        url = {http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wscacchi/Papers/New/SPIP-FOSS-Intro-Dec2005.pdf},
        timestamp = {2007.03.03},
	owner = {jfr46},
	description = {AO Evolution chapter short paper},
	abstract = {This article introduces a special issue of Software Process – Improvement and Practice focusing on
processes found in free or open source software development (F/OSSD) projects. It seeks to
provide a background overview of research in this area through a review of selected empirical
studies of F/OSSD processes. The results and findings from a survey of empirical studies of
F/OSSD give rise to an interesting variety of opportunities and challenges for understanding
these processes, which are identified along the way. Overall, what becomes clear is that studies
of F/OSSD processes reveal a more diverse set of different types of processes than have typically
been examined in conventional software development projects. The articles in this special issue
further advance understanding of what processes characterize and shape F/OSSD},
	biburl = {http://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2098640d29eb4ad3256e0401b45936031/neilernst},
	keywords = {evolution oss could-read}
}

@phdthesis{michlmayr07,
        title = {Quality Improvement in Volunteer Free and Open Source Software Projects: Exploring the Impact of Release Management},
        address = {Cambridge, UK},
        author = {Martin Michlmayr},
        school = {University of Cambridge},
        year = 2007,
        url = {http://www.cyrius.com/publications/michlmayr-phd.pdf},
        abstract = {Free and open source software has had a major impact on the computer industry since the late 1990s and has changed the way software is perceived, developed and deployed in many areas. Free and open source software, or FOSS, is typically developed in a collaborative fashion and the majority of contributors are volunteers. Even though this collaborative form of development has produced a significant body of software, the development process is often described as unstructured and unorganized. This dissertation studies the FOSS phenomenon from a quality perspective and investigates where improvements to the development process are possible. In particular, the focus is on release management since this is concerned with the delivery of a high quality product to end-users.

This research has identified considerable interest amongst the FOSS community in a novel release management strategy, time based releases. In contrast to traditional development which is feature-driven, time based releases use time rather than features as the criterion for the creation of a new release. Releases are made after a specific interval, and new features that have been completed and sufficiently tested since the last release are included in the new version.

This dissertation explores why, and under which circumstances, the time based release strategy is a viable alternative to feature-driven development and discusses factors that influence a successful implementation of this release strategy. It is argued that this release strategy acts as a coordination mechanism in large volunteer projects that are geographically dispersed. The time based release strategy allows a more controlled development and release process in projects which have little control of their contributors and therefore contributes to the quality of the output. },
	biburl = {http://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2f06527485cfde39b213c63ec5e5606ae/neilernst},
	keywords = {OSS quality release}
}