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Release management in free and open source software ecosystems

Releasing software is challenging. To decide when to release software, developers may consider a deadline, a set of features or quality attributes. Yet, there are many stories of software that is not released on time. In large-scale software development, release management requires significant communication and coordination. It is particularly challenging in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) ecosystems, in which hundreds of loosely connected developers and their projects are coordinated for releasing software according to a schedule. In this work, we investigate the release management process in two large-scale FOSS development projects. In particular, our focus is the communication in the whole release management process in each ecosystem across multiple releases. The main research questions addressed in this dissertation are: (1) How do developers in these FOSS ecosystems communicate and coordinate to build and release a common product based on different projects? (2) What are the release management tasks in a FOSS ecosystem? and (3) What are the challenges that release managers face in a FOSS ecosystem? To understand this process and its challenges better, we used a multiple case study methodology, and colleced evidence from a combination of the following sources: documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant observation, and physical artifacts. We conducted the case studies on two FLOSS software ecosystems: GNOME and OpenStack. We analyzed over two and half years of communication in each ecosystem