Research

Focusing on open-source software (OSS) development processes, my research seeks to reveal how best to manage collaboration challenges in nontraditional work environments. While multiple success stories stand out in the OSS arena (e.g., Linux, Wikipedia, and Apache), many collaboration attempts fail. I seek to do the highest quality research to understand why they fail and the conditions necessary for them to succeed.

To achieve these goals, I design studies informed by organizational theoretical concepts such as uncertainty reduction theory, diversity, person-environment fit, and social network theory modified for this context. These allow me to investigate the open and distributed product development process and better understand the nontraditional work environments of modern, open organizations. I have designed studies at the individual and project level of analysis. My studies aim to pinpoint keys to collaboration management success by frequently leveraging large archival databases (e.g., Github database’s records on millions of developers) and survey data, as well as engaging multiple data analysis methods (e.g., negative binomial, partial least squares, functional data analysis, polynomial regression, ordinary least squares and structural equation modeling).