Application of Multidimensional Visualization Techniques for Quality Evaluation and Monitoring of Open Source Software

• Grant number: 12/07722-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computer Systems
• Principal Investigator: Rosane Minghim
• Grantee: Rafael Messias Martins
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The free and open source software development model emerged as a movement of volunteer developers and users, but due to its success, has been adopted and researched by major software organizations worldwide. Nevertheless, the concept of quality of free software and the factors that lead to its implementation are still open issues in Software Engineering research, causing reluctance on the adoption of this new model and making it difficult to select products to be used and integrated. This situation makes it necessary to establish an objective process of quality assessment and understanding for, among other goals, the classification and comparison of open source projects. One way to gain such understanding is the extraction and analysis of quality metrics - of code, testing or repository, for example - similar to the Qualipso research project (Quality Platform for Open Source Software), which had the goals of leveraging the current practices of open source development to the levels of reliable, well-recognized and established industrial operations keeping the freshness and enthusiasm of the open source model. That extraction, however, tends to generate huge amounts of data which are difficult to analyze without the proper tools. This work proposes the application of modern multidimensional visualization techniques to analyze data from measurements of free and open source software projects, in order to establish a process and a collaborative platform of quality assessment to support the tasks of developing, managing, selecting and integrating open projects. It is expected that the results will further encourage the adoption of open source in the software industry, providing mechanisms for objective assessment of the quality of available projects, and contribute to the overall understanding of the quality features of open source software, assisting communities and organizations in collaboratively managing and evolving the quality of their efforts.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

MARTINS, Rafael Messias. Explanatory visualization of multidimensional prejections. 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC/SB) São Carlos.