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Pots of Gold at the End of the Rainbow: What is Success for Open Source Contributors?

Bianca Trinkenreich, Mariam Guizani, Igor Wiese, Tayana Conte, Marco Gerosa, Anita Sarma, Igor Steinmacher

TL;DR

This study provides nuanced definitions of success perceptions in OSS, which might help devise strategies to attract and retain a diverse set of contributors, helping them attain their unique “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”.

Abstract

Success in Open Source Software (OSS) is often perceived as an exclusively code-centric endeavor. This perception can exclude a variety of individuals with a diverse set of skills and backgrounds, in turn helping create the current diversity & inclusion imbalance in OSS. Because people's perspectives of success affect their personal, professional, and life choices, to be able to support a diverse class of individuals, we must first understand what OSS contributors consider successful. Thus far, research has used a uni-dimensional, code-centric lens to define success. In this paper, we challenge this status-quo and reveal the multi-faceted definition of success among OSS contributors. We do so through interviews with 27 OSS contributors who are recognized as successful in their communities, and a follow-up open survey with 193 OSS contributors. Our study provides nuanced definitions of success perceptions in OSS, which might help devise strategies to attract and retain a diverse set of contributors, helping them attain their "pots of gold at the end of the rainbow".

Pots of Gold at the End of the Rainbow: What is Success for Open Source Contributors?

TL;DR

This study provides nuanced definitions of success perceptions in OSS, which might help devise strategies to attract and retain a diverse set of contributors, helping them attain their unique “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”.

Abstract

Success in Open Source Software (OSS) is often perceived as an exclusively code-centric endeavor. This perception can exclude a variety of individuals with a diverse set of skills and backgrounds, in turn helping create the current diversity & inclusion imbalance in OSS. Because people's perspectives of success affect their personal, professional, and life choices, to be able to support a diverse class of individuals, we must first understand what OSS contributors consider successful. Thus far, research has used a uni-dimensional, code-centric lens to define success. In this paper, we challenge this status-quo and reveal the multi-faceted definition of success among OSS contributors. We do so through interviews with 27 OSS contributors who are recognized as successful in their communities, and a follow-up open survey with 193 OSS contributors. Our study provides nuanced definitions of success perceptions in OSS, which might help devise strategies to attract and retain a diverse set of contributors, helping them attain their "pots of gold at the end of the rainbow".

Paper Structure

This paper contains 30 sections, 4 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Defining Success
  3. Research Design
  4. Interviews: Building the OSS Success Model
  5. Interview Planning
  6. Data Collection
  7. Data Analysis
  8. Survey: Data Triangulation
  9. Survey Planning
  10. Data Collection
  11. Data Analysis
  12. Results
  13. Understanding Success in OSS
  14. Quad1: Interpersonal $\times$ Affect
  15. Quad2: Interpersonal $\times$ Achievement
  16. ...and 15 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: The multidimensional model of success dries2008career
  • Figure 2: The research method, which included face-to-face interviews at the OSCON'19 event and later with OSS maintainers through video conferencing, as well as a large-scale survey. We conducted qualitative analysis to build the OSS Success Model and qualitative and quantitative analysis to triangulate the definition of success we found from the interviews’ data
  • Figure 3: OSS Success Model. We mapped our participants' definitions (shown outside the bold square) to Dries et al.'s model dries2008career, which organize success in four quadrants.
  • Figure 4: Subgroup analysis of the meanings of success. The opacity of the icons represents the percentage of each group for the quadrant. Darker means a higher and lighter a lower percentage. Some respondents provided answers about success that accounted for more than one quadrant.