What do we know about floss developers' attraction, retention, and commitment? A literature review

Abstract

Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is an essential part of our daily life. Many companies and private households rely on FLOSS every day. However, the vast majority of FLOSS initiatives fail. In order to support future research and derive operational advice for FLOSS projects, this research reviews and categorizes the managerial insights from over 20 years of FLOSS research. Based on the central role of the developer base and research on human resource management, developer attraction, retention and commitment are identified as core management areas for FLOSS projects. A detailed analysis of 43 journal articles on FLOSS management identifies an extensive body, which analyses project members' commitment. In contrast, there is relatively little dedicated research on FLOSS developers' attraction and retention. Moreover, the literature review reveals that most articles use solely either an individual-, group- or project-centric research perspective although these perspectives are interrelated with each other. © 2014 IEEE.