[dot] SQO-OSS Project Launched with KDE

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1161821085/

From: Adriaan de Groot <groot at kde.org>
Dept: konqui-is-an-absent-minded-professor
Date: Wednesday 25/Oct/2006, @17:04

SQO-OSS Project Launched with KDE
=================================

   KDE [http://www.kde.org/] together with the Athens University of
Economics and Business [http://www.aueb.gr/] and the Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki [http://www.auth.gr/home/index_en.html] and
other partners has launched SQO-OSS [http://www.sqo-oss.eu/]. This is a
two-year multi-million euro project that aims to develop new tools and
techniques for measuring Open Source quality.

     SQO-OSS aims to assist European software developers in improving
the quality of their code, and to remove one of the key barriers to
entry for Open Source software by providing scientific proof of its
quality to businesses. This two-fold approach which benefits both
developers and users is complemented by a broad definition of the notion
of quality. Quality encompasses not only the source code of the project
(KDE's SVN repository is one of the largest in the world) but also the
project's "soft" data like the community around it. By analysing both
the code and the communication (like bug reports and mailing list
discussions) that leads to changes in the code we can get a better
picture of the quality of KDE's software and its processes.

     For developers the results based on code analysis are immediately
useful. Within KDE we have experience with the  EBN
[http://www.englishbreakfastnetwork.org] and the fixes that come out of
there (some more useful than others, granted). Similar checks will be
done within the SQO-OSS framework, although the scope for analytical
tools including static analysis is much greater. Having a clear
indication of what is wrong in the code and what could be better is a
great way to steer effort, for those developers that want a little
steering or would like to apply their efforts towards immediately
visible targets.

     On the process side of things, the analysis of mailing lists and
bug reports and the correlation of those with code changes will help the
KDE project understand its development processes and identify where the
processes can be improved.

     The applicability of SQO-OSS for businesses becomes clear when the
quality measurements for projects are aggregated and summarised.
Research into novel and correct ways of analysing quality metrics into
an overall quality report drives half of the SQO-OSS project. With these
overall quality reports, businesses can compare and contrast different
Open Source projects in order to obtain a better idea of which projects
are usable for them.

     Chief researchers for the KDE project within SQO-OSS are Sebastian
Kügler and Adriaan de Groot. The KDE take on SQO-OSS progress can be
found on Adriaan's SQO-OSS blog
[http://people.fruitsalad.org/adridg/bobulate/index.php?/categories/8-SQO-OSS]
and ZDNet also has a report.
 [http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39284268,00.htm]