Measuring the Effectiveness of the Defect-Fixing Process in Open Source Software Projects

The defect-fixing process is a key process in which an open source software (OSS) project team responds to customer needs in terms of detecting and resolving software defects, hence the dimension of defect-fixing effectiveness corresponds nicely to adopters' concerns regarding OSS products. Although researchers have been studying the defect fixing process in OSS projects for almost a decade, the literature still lacks rigorous ways to measure the effectiveness of this process. Thus, this paper aims to create a valid and reliable instrument to measure the defect-fixing effectiveness construct in an open source environment through the scale development methodology proposed by Churchill [4]. This paper examines the validity and reliability of an initial list of indicators through two rounds of data collection and analysis. Finally four indicators are suggested to measure defect-fixing effectiveness. The implication for practitioners is explained through a hypothetical example followed by implications for the research community.