Why do developers take breaks from contributing to OSS projects? A preliminary analysis
This work addresses the problem of understanding contributor attrition for OSS communities, but it is incremental as it builds on existing lifecycle models without introducing major new findings.
The paper tackles the under-explored stage of developers leaving open source software projects by identifying temporary and permanent break states, based on preliminary interviews with active developers. It raises new questions to guide further research, with no concrete numerical results provided.
Creating a successful and sustainable Open Source Software (OSS) project often depends on the strength and the health of the community behind it. Current literature explains the contributors' lifecycle, starting with the motivations that drive people to contribute and barriers to joining OSS projects, covering developers' evolution until they become core members. However, the stages when developers leave the projects are still weakly explored and are not well-defined in existing developers' lifecycle models. In this position paper, we enrich the knowledge about the leaving stage by identifying sleeping and dead states, representing temporary and permanent brakes that developers take from contributing. We conducted a preliminary set of semi-structured interviews with active developers. We analyzed the answers by focusing on defining and understanding the reasons for the transitions to/from sleeping and dead states. This paper raises new questions that may guide further discussions and research, which may ultimately benefit OSS communities.