Author: Jørgensen, Niels

Source: Journal of Management & Governance, Volume 11, Number 2, May 2007 , pp. 119-128(10)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Delegation of authority is the basic approach to coordination of work in FreeBSD, an open source software (OSS) project that develops and maintains an operating system. This essay combines a software engineering perspective with a knowledge creation perspective to discuss three central mechanisms in FreeBSD: (1) motivation, (2) quality control by frequent building, and (3) bugfixing by parallel debugging. It is argued that frequent building is the project's key coordinating mechanism, and that build breakdowns play a constructive role in the processes of knowledge creation in FreeBSD.

Keywords: Frequent building; Knowledge creation; Open source; Quality assurance

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10997-007-9026-5

Affiliations: 1: Email: nielsj@ruc.dk

Publication date: 2007-05-01

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