A Statistical Analysis of Defects in Debian and Strategies for Improving Quality in Free Software Projects

  • Martin Michlmayr, University of Melbourne
  • Anthony Senyard, University of Melbourne

Abstract

It has been argued that free software and open source projects benefit from a high level of user involvement. Users influence the direction of a project through feature requests, and their identification of bugs and defects in the software contribute to high levels of quality. In this paper, we present a number of statistical analyses based on over 7,000 defect reports which have been recorded about the free software project Debian. These analysis are used to make observations on the effectiveness of the open source development process used by projects such as Debian and recommendations on how to improve this process.

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Reference

Michlmayr, M., Senyard, A. (2006). A Statistical Analysis of Defects in Debian and Strategies for Improving Quality in Free Software Projects. In: Bitzer, J., Schröder, P. J. H. (Eds.), The Economics of Open Source Software Development. 131–148.