Working Group Report On Coordinating Distributed Software Development Projects

Abstract

This paper summarizes the work presented at the WET ICE '98 workshop on "Coordinating Distributed Software Development Projects" as well as the ensuing discussions that arose in the course of the workshop.

Coordinating open-source software development

“…For example, Linux kernel mailing list averages over 100 messages per day. As a matter of fact, if we define project coordination as "the attempt to get the right information to the right people at the right time" [8], it could be argued that open-source projects lack it entirely and leave all coordination work to humans. Although the mailing lists are for most projects automatically archived and available on-line for hypertext browsing, effective retrieval and management of that volume of information requires more sophisticated tools than basic reply-threading.…”