Open Source Software Development Methods
It is hard to run an open source project following a more traditional software development method like the waterfall model, because in these traditional methods it is not allowed to go back to a previous phase. In open source software development requirements are rarely gathered before the start of the project; instead they are based on early releases of the software product, as Robbins describes. Besides requirements, often volunteer staff is attracted to help develop the software product based on the early releases of the software. This networking effect is essential according to Abrahamsson et al.: “if the introduced prototype gathers enough attention, it will gradually start to attract more and more developers”. However, Abrahamsson et al. also point out that the community is very harsh, much like the business world of closed source software: “if you find the customers you survive, but without customers you die”.
Alfonso Fuggetta mentions that “rapid prototyping, incremental and evolutionary development, spiral lifecycle, rapid application development, and, recently, extreme programming and the agile software process can be equally applied to proprietary and open source software”. One open source development method mentioned by Fuggetta is an agile method called Extreme Programming. All the Agile methods are in essence applicable to open source software development, because of their iterative and incremental character. Another Agile method, Internet-Speed Development, is also suitable for open source software development in particular because of the distributed development principle it adopts. Internet-Speed Development used geographically distributed teams to ‘work around the clock’. This method is mostly adopted by large closed source firms like Microsoft, because only big software firms are able to create distributed development centers in different time zones. Of course if software is developed by a large group of volunteers in different countries, this is being achieved naturally and without the investment needed like with closed source software development.
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