A Tertiary Study on Open Source Software Research
Saima Imtiaz, Salma Imtiaz, Salma Imtiaz, Salma Imtiaz, Ahmad Almadhor, Rastislav Kulhánek · 2023
Context: Open-Source Software (OSS) development has gained popularity in the last two decades. There is a lot of research in the area of OSS major ones being OSS evolution (product, and community), adoption, and development. Multiple Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) and Systematic Mapping Studies (SMS) are published in the OSS domain; however, many areas are still open for research. Objective: The study aims to aggregate and classify Open-Source Software (OSS) areas, topics, and, future directions. Method: A systematic tertiary study is performed to cover all the systematic secondary studies in the area of OSS. The guidelines of Kitchenham are used for designing the protocol and piloting it before execution. Result: We identified sixty studies that consist of 18 SMS and 42 SLR. The literature is mapped to an already published taxonomy of OSS by Aksulu and Wade, however, the future directions are thematically analyzed. The results of key research areas mapped to taxonomy show that the highest number of studies are in the “ OSS categorization/research agenda” sub-category, of the “ Conceptual” category. Another sub-category of “ Conceptual” i.e., “ OSS Vs Proprietary” also has eight studies mapped to it. The other category having the majority of studies mapped is “ OSS Production” in the sub-categories of “ Communities”, “ User and Developer Motivation”, “ Process” and, “ Self-Organization (Product and Community Evolution)” The findings are also mapped to the sub-categories of the taxonomy. The areas that have major future directions (thematically analyzed) are OSS contributors which are “ OSS developers / OSS communities and organizations involved with OSS”, OSS evolution and prediction, use of OSS in different domains, OSS adoption/adaptation/integration, OSS process, and OSS quality. Conclusion: The mapping of key research areas to taxonomy shows that there is a lot of research potential in the categories of “ Legal and Regulatory”, “ Performance Metrics”, “ OSS Applications” and, “ Beyond Software”. The categories having systematic secondary studies in some of the sub-categories have others, which have no SLR or SMS in them e.g., “ OSS Descriptive” in “ Conceptual”, “ Team/Project Leadership”, “ Individual and Team Learning”, “ Role of Volunteer Users/Developers” and,“ OSS Production-Role of Licensing and IP” in “ Performance Metrics” e.t.c. This information will help future research in the area of OSS. Furthermore, the explicit future directions mentioned in the systematic secondary studies are in the major areas of OSS Contributors that are “ OSS developers / OSS communities and organizations involved with OSS”. OSS evolution and prediction, use of OSS in different domains, OSS adoption/adaptation/integration, OSS process, and OSS quality.