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Access Type

WSU Access

Date of Award

January 2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Amiangshu Bosu

Abstract

Open Source Software (OSS) projects depend on the contribution of new and existing developers. However, a significant number of newcomers fail to become long-term contributors because they face many barriers on their road to becoming long-term contributors. Because of receiving low-quality and delayed feedback, many newcomers do not return to contribute to the project. Prior studies found that timely and useful review feedback and proper mentoring from experienced developers can increase the retention of newcomers. Therefore, this dissertation aims to foster OSS communities with tools and guidelines to assist newcomers’ onboarding and retention. On this goal, I plan to empirically investigate: (i) What are the characteristics of useful review comments, and which contextual and participant factors influence the usefulness of review comments, (ii) how to facilitate automatic classification of code review comments and (iii) which task-related recommendations are practically influencing the newcomer onboarding process.

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