Towards a Unified Definition of Open Source Quality

Software quality needs to be specified and evaluated in order to determine the success of a development project, but this is a challenge with Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) because of its permanently emergent state. This has not deterred the growth of the assumption that FLOSS is higher quality than traditionally developed software, despite of mixed research results. With this literature review, we found the reason for these mixed results is that that quality is being defined, measured, and evaluated differently. We report the most popular definitions, such as software structure measures, process measures, such as defect fixing, and maturity assessment models. The way researchers have built their samples has also contributed to the mixed results with different project properties being considered and ignored. Because FLOSS projects are evolving, their quality is too, and it must be measured using metrics that take into account its community’s commitment to quality rather than just its software structure. Challenges exist in defining what constitutes a defect or bug, and the role of modularity in affecting FLOSS quality.