Empirical analysis of the bug fixing process in open source projects

Monitoring the performance of processes is often considered critical in classic engineering fields. However, in the area of software engineering, especially in the Open Source context, the scientific literature has disregarded the problem of identifying the process characteristics and performance of debugging. The aim of this paper is the identification of the performance characteristics of the bug fixing process of Open Source applications, focusing on temporal continuity and efficiency indicators. These indicators are particularly important since Open Source software is now widely adopted in business contexts and the bug fixing process is directly responsible for software dependability. We have analyzed the debugging process of 9 active and popular Open Source projects, collecting a dataset comprising more than 65,000 closed bugs. Results have highlighted four types of bug fixing processes that can be distinguished by considering temporal continuity and efficiency dimensions.