Abstract:

The importance of defect resolution on project success in open source projects has been highlighted by prior research. However, there is a lack of empirical work examining the impact of defect fixing on project activity. This paper aims to better understand the relationship between defect fixing and project activity in an open source environment. Data collected from 240 open source software (OSS) projects confirmed that defect fixing positively and strongly impacts on project activity. In addition, the magnitude of this impact was found to be higher for projects with a broader range of use (e.g. ‘Communication’ programs) than those with a lower range of use (e.g. ‘Engineering’ programs).