Abstract: Open source software development has been steadily gaining momentum over the past few years. Developers from diverse geographic locations work in collaboration in an open source environment with the common goal of finding effective software solutions. However, due to the inherent nature of this environment, there are several issues which come in the way of successful software development. Despite recent progress towards greater ease of use in mature open source projects, many pieces of open software remain somewhat inaccessible to any but the technologically sophisticated. The problems prevalent in the development of open source projects include:
- A lack of excellent documentation
- Inefficient GUIs
- A lack of marketing to make potential users aware of the existence of mature projects
- Inconsistent and generally unknowable quality of projects
- Complexities of licensing and license proliferation
- Lack of knowledgeable and available support staff
- Fear, uncertainty and doubt
Addressing these open source environment specific issues and developing a process to tackle them will improve the quality of open source projects as well as encourage peoples’ participation and use of open source softwares. This paper discusses the issues faced in open source software development and the suggested solutions to tackle these issues at the process level.