The moderating role of development stage in free/open source software project performance

Abstract The main thesis developed and tested in this article is that development stage plays an important moderating role in determining both objective and subjective performance outcomes in free/open source software (F/OSS) projects. This contention is supported by an empirical study of 67 F/OSS projects, with results indicating that subjective performance assessments are calibrated to different objective performance indicators across early and later development stages. The role of team climate variables (trust and shared ideology) in determining both objective and subjective performance also varies across stages. The findings have implications for improving software development processes through appropriate human resource management interventions over the course of F/OSS software projects. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.