Combining FOSS and Kanban: An action research

Abstract

Even though Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Agile Software Development (ASD) have been recognized as important ways to develop software, share some similarities, and have many success stories, there is a lack of research regarding the comprehensive integration of both practices. This study attempts to consolidate these methods and to answer if FOSS and ASD can be combined successfully. Action Reseach (AR) is conducted with one sub-team of a large FOSS project. We performed two action research cycles based on the Kanban method. This paper has two main contributions; first, it describes a real world situation, where Kanban is applied to a FOSS project, and second, it suggests two new Kanban practices. These two methods are targeted specifically at FOSS projects and their characteristics.