Context/Background: The adoption of Open Source Software involves more than using OSS products and this has marked a new trend in software development. This new practice has potential benefits while introducing peculiar practical challenges in software development; particularly in areas concerning OSS selection. This involves OSS search and establishment of selection criteria which selects the best OSS product that matches the system requirements. These challenges have also introduced significant bottlenecks into software development industry. In order to mitigate or solve these problems, there isa need to identify OSS success factors for any software development firm that wants to go OPEN. Objective: This thesis aims to investigate the benefits and limitations of adopting OSS and to identify the success factors that lead to the benefits of OSS in software development. Method: Systematic literature review, through searches in library databases, was used to review empirical studies on OSS success factors when going OPEN. The data was extracted and synthesized from the selected papers for analysis. Mapping was used to obtain information concerning the OSS success factors when going OPEN, benefits, limitations/bottlenecks encountered in the industry, and were used to validate our findings from the literature. Results: Ninety three papers were identified. The data extraction from the SLR helped to identify the success factors, benefits and the bottlenecks from the literatures in the past decade. Conclusion: The implications of our thesis are two fold; practitioners should be acquainted with the benefits and limitations of adopting OSS and also learn from our identified success factors that leads to benefits in software development. This will help them when going OPEN. Alternatively, researchers should align their work and try to identify more knowledge gaps using our identified bottlenecks/limitations for software organizations when going OPEN. / Context/Background: The adoption of Open Source Software involves more than using OSS products and this has marked a new trend in software development. This new practice has potential benefits while introducing peculiar practical challenges in software development; particularly in areas concerning OSS selection. This involves OSS search and establishment of selection criteria which selects the best OSS product that matches the system requirements. These challenges have also introduced significant bottlenecks into software development industry. In order to mitigate or solve these problems, there isa need to identify OSS success factors for any software development firm that wants to go OPEN. Objective: This thesis aims to investigate the benefits and limitations of adopting OSS and to identify the success factors that lead to the benefits of OSS in software development. Method: Systematic literature review, through searches in library databases, was used to review empirical studies on OSS success factors when going OPEN. The data was extracted and synthesized from the selected papers for analysis. Mapping was used to obtain information concerning the OSS success factors when going OPEN, benefits, limitations/bottlenecks encountered in the industry, and were used to validate our findings from the literature. Results: Ninety three papers were identified. The data extraction from the SLR helped to identify the success factors, benefits and the bottlenecks from the literatures in the past decade. Conclusion: The implications of our thesis are two fold; practitioners should be acquainted with the benefits and limitations of adopting OSS and also learn from our identified success factors that leads to benefits in software development. This will help them when going OPEN. Alternatively, researchers should align their work and try to identify more knowledge gaps using our identified bottlenecks/limitations for software organizations when going OPEN. / D.Tharashasank Phone no:00919505953735
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:bth-5693 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Davuluru, Tharashasank, Echezona, Ude Francis |
| Publisher | Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för datavetenskap och kommunikation, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för datavetenskap och kommunikation |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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