Abstract
Developer contribution guidelines are used in social coding sites like GitHub to explain and shape the process a project expects contributors to follow. They set standards for all participants and 'save time and hassle caused by improperly created pull requests or issues that have to be rejected and re-submitted' (GitHub). Yet, we lack a systematic understanding of the content of a typical contribution guideline, as well as the extent to which these guidelines are followed in practice. Additionally, understanding how guidelines may impact projects that use Continuous Integration as part of the contribution process is of particular interest. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a mixed-methods study of 53 GitHub projects with explicit contribution guidelines and coded the guidelines to extract key themes. We then created a process model using GitHub activity data (e.g., commit, new issue, new pull request) to compare the actual activity with the prescribed contribution guidelines. We show that approximately 68% of these projects diverge significantly from the expected process.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019 |
Publisher | IEEE |
Pages | 286-290 |
Number of pages | 5 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781728130941 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Event | 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019 - Cleveland, United States Duration: 30 Sept 2019 → 4 Oct 2019 https://icsme2019.github.io |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019 |
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Conference
Conference | 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019 |
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Abbreviated title | ICSME 2019 |
Country/Territory | United States |
City | Cleveland |
Period | 30/09/19 → 4/10/19 |
Internet address |
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-careOtherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Keywords
- automation
- code contributions
- software engineering