Defining Software Evolvability from a Free/Open-Source Software

Abstract

This paper studies various sources of information to identify factors that influence the evolvability of Free and Open-Source Software (FIOSS) endeavors. The sources reviewed to extract criteria are (1) interviews with FIOSS integrators, (2) the scientific literature, and (3) existing standard, norms as well as (4) three quality assessment methodologies specific to FIOSS , namely, QSOS, OpenBRR and Open Source Maturity Model. This effort fits in the larger scope of QUALOSS, a research project funded by the European Commission, whose goal is to develop a methodology to assess the evolvability and robustness of FIOSS endeavors.