Understanding how and why open source contributors use diagrams in the development of Ubuntu

Abstract

Some of the most interesting differences between Open Source Software (OSS) development and commercial colocated software development lie in the communication and collaboration practices of these two groups of developers. One interesting practice is that of diagramming. Though well studied and important in many aspects of co-located software development (including communication and collaboration among developers), its role in OSS development has not been thoroughly studied. In this paper, we report our investigation on how and why Ubuntu contributors use diagrams in their work. Our study shows that diagrams are not actively used in many scenarios where they commonly would in co-located software development efforts. We describe differences in the use and practices of diagramming, their possible reasons, and present design considerations for potential systems aimed at better supporting diagram use in OSS development.

Sketching and Drawing in the Design of Open Source Software

“…This was also found by Cherubini et al and Yatani et al [3,20], and we did not observe noticeable differences from their findings. Thus, we decided not to further analyze this scenario.…”

“…Yatani et al examined how Ubuntu contributors used diagrams in their project [20]. They found that Ubuntu contributors occasionally used diagrams for five of the nine scenarios defined by Cherubini et al [3].…”

“…We deployed an online survey and recruited 230 respondents from 40 different OSS projects. Our 1 In this paper, as in Yatani et al's paper., "design" refers to designing interfaces entangled with interaction between subsystems including system behaviors and appearances [18,20]. key finding from the survey is that although participants from a variety of OSS projects appreciated diagrams, they did not use them effectively in their design practice.…”

“…Motivated by the lack of data about diagramming practices in distributed development, Yatani et al studied how and why Ubuntu contributors used diagrams in their development process [20]. They showed that contributors express ideas using freehand sketching to explore different designs 1 as well as to get feedback from community members, albeit not as frequently as their co-located counterparts.…”

“…They showed that contributors express ideas using freehand sketching to explore different designs 1 as well as to get feedback from community members, albeit not as frequently as their co-located counterparts. Many of the barriers that their participants encountered were related to the technical limitations of current computerbased diagramming tools, and how they conflicted with the OSS workflow [20]. As Yatani et al 's study was only exploratory in nature and focused on a single OSS project, we decided to follow up with a much broader study that would explore OSS diagramming practices and barriers in greater depth, especially as they relate to design, across a broad set of OSS projects.…”