Extension decisions in open source software ecosystem

IF 4.1 2区计算机科学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Journal of Systems and Software Pub Date : 2025-07-10 DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2025.112552

Elmira Onagh, Maleknaz Nayebi

引用次数: 0

Abstract

GitHub Marketplace is expanding by approximately 41% annually, with new tools; however, many additions replicate existing functionality. We study this phenomenon in the platform’s largest segment, Continuous Integration (CI), by linking 6,983 CI Actions to 3,869 providers and mining their version histories. Our graph model timestamps every functionality’s debut, tracks its adoption, and clusters redundant tools. We find that approximately 65% of new CI Actions replicate existing capabilities, typically within six months, and that a small set of first-mover Actions accounts for most subsequent forks and extensions. These insights enable developers to choose the optimal moment to launch, target unmet functionality, and help maintainers eliminate redundant tools. We publish the complete graph and dataset to encourage longitudinal research on innovation and competition in software ecosystems, and to provide practitioners with a data-driven roadmap for identifying emerging trends and guiding product strategy.

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开源软件生态系统中的扩展决策

GitHub市场以每年约41%的速度增长，并推出了新工具；然而，许多新增功能复制了现有功能。我们通过将6,983个持续集成操作链接到3,869个提供商并挖掘其版本历史，在平台最大的部分持续集成（CI）中研究了这一现象。我们的图模型对每个功能的首次亮相进行时间戳，跟踪其采用情况，并对冗余工具进行集群。我们发现，大约65%的新CI action复制了现有的功能，通常在6个月内完成，而一小部分先行者action负责了大多数后续的分支和扩展。这些见解使开发人员能够选择最佳的启动时机，瞄准未满足的功能，并帮助维护人员消除冗余的工具。我们发布完整的图表和数据集，以鼓励对软件生态系统中的创新和竞争进行纵向研究，并为从业者提供数据驱动的路线图，以识别新兴趋势和指导产品战略。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Systems and Software 工程技术-计算机：理论方法

CiteScore

8.60

自引率

5.70%

发文量

193

审稿时长

16 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of software engineering and related hardware-software-systems issues. All articles should include a validation of the idea presented, e.g. through case studies, experiments, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: •Methods and tools for, and empirical studies on, software requirements, design, architecture, verification and validation, maintenance and evolution •Agile, model-driven, service-oriented, open source and global software development •Approaches for mobile, multiprocessing, real-time, distributed, cloud-based, dependable and virtualized systems •Human factors and management concerns of software development •Data management and big data issues of software systems •Metrics and evaluation, data mining of software development resources •Business and economic aspects of software development processes The journal welcomes state-of-the-art surveys and reports of practical experience for all of these topics.