Software Archeology @ RIT
How Do They Work?
These first few weeks we are becoming familiar with the Chromium project, getting to know them ethographically, so to speak. So initially, each of the students have been going through the Chromium project in an attempt to answer the following contributors.
- How do this team work? What’s the typical workflow?
- Where are the important discussions?
- Where is there a transfer of knowledge?
- What is the common vernacular? For example, we have found that the phrase “LGTM” (Looks Good To Me) is an official response of signing off on someone else’s patch, not just a flippant remark.
- Who are the top contributors? How do you know?
What’s the Evidence?
The key here is to (a) get to know the project so that we understand the data we should be collecting, and (b) start identifying evidence for the observations we make. To exercise this, we are individually investigating the above questions, then in our weekly meetings presenting our results to the group. We must support our claims, so we have to have evidence for the observations we make. This practice of gathering interesting observations along with evidence is a microcosm for what the whole project is about.
This project is sponsored by the Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates, funded by the National Science Foundation.