{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]],"date-time":"2026-03-10T19:58:37Z","timestamp":1773172717789,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,26]],"date-time":"2023-05-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1685059200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"German Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["AP\u00a0206\/14-1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AP\u00a0206\/14-1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n            Despite the absence of a formal process and a central command-and-control structure, developer organization in open-source software (OSS) projects are far from being a purely random process. Prior work indicates that, over time, highly successful OSS projects develop a\n            <jats:italic>hybrid<\/jats:italic>\n            organizational structure that comprises a\n            <jats:italic>hierarchical<\/jats:italic>\n            part and a\n            <jats:italic>non-hierarchical<\/jats:italic>\n            part. This suggests that hierarchical organization is not necessarily a global organizing principle and that a fundamentally different principle is at play below the lowest positions in the hierarchy. Given the vast proportion of developers are in the non-hierarchical part, we seek to understand the interplay between these two fundamentally differently organized groups, how this\n            <jats:italic>hybrid structure<\/jats:italic>\n            evolves, and the trajectory individual developers take through these structures over the course of their participation. We conducted a longitudinal study of the full histories of 20\u00a0popular OSS projects, modeling their organizational structures as networks of developers connected by communication ties and characterizing developers\u2019 positions in terms of hierarchical (sub)structures in these networks. We observed a number of notable trends and patterns in the subject projects: (1)\u00a0hierarchy is a pervasive structural feature of developer networks of OSS projects; (2)\u00a0OSS projects tend to form hybrid organizational structures, consisting of a hierarchical and a non-hierarchical part; and (3)\u00a0the positional trajectory of a developer starts loosely connected in the non-hierarchical part and then tightly integrate into the hierarchical part, which is associated with the acquisition of experience (tenure), in addition to coordination and coding activities. Our study (a)\u00a0provides a methodological basis for further investigations of hierarchy formation, (b)\u00a0suggests a number of hypotheses on prevalent organizational patterns and trends in OSS projects to be addressed in further work, and (c)\u00a0may ultimately guide the governance of organizational structures.\n          <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3569949","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,2]],"date-time":"2022-12-02T13:46:40Z","timestamp":1669988800000},"page":"1-29","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Hierarchical and Hybrid Organizational Structures in Open-source Software Projects: A Longitudinal Study"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"32","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8812-3379","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mitchell","family":"Joblin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Saarland University and Siemens"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2417-6724","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Barbara","family":"Eckl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Passau"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6906-3489","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Bock","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9274-3666","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Angelika","family":"Schmid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IBM"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9574-3020","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Janet","family":"Siegmund","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Chemnitz University of Technology"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3687-2233","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sven","family":"Apel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1504\/IJISCM.2015.075632"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_2","unstructured":"Christian Bird Alex Gourley Premkumar T. Devanbu Anand Swaminathan and Greta Hsu. 2007. Open borders? Immigration in open source projects. In Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories . IEEE 6\u20136."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ISSRE.2009.17"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1453101.1453107"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3473139"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2393596.2393647"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1414004.1414008"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_9_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/tse.2009.42"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSE-SEIS.2019.00010"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_11_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11390-017-1728-9"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_12_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12130-006-1004-8"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_13_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-019-09700-1"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_14_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5486\/PMD.1959.6.3-4.12"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_15_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.122653799"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_16_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2021.110911"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_17_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3387940.3391503"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_18_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5465\/AMBPP.2018.117"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_19_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0170840609339241"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_20_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2020.110802"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_21_2","first-page":"553","volume-title":"Proceedings of the Int. Conf. Information Systems","author":"Herbsleb James D.","year":"2006","unstructured":"James D. Herbsleb, Audris Mockus, and Jeffrey A. Roberts. 2006. Collaboration in software engineering projects: A theory of coordination. In Proceedings of the Int. Conf. Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, 553\u2013568."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_22_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1180875.1180928"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_23_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/WSCAD.2018.00037"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_24_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-020-09833-8"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_25_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3504003"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_26_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSE.2017.23"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_27_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-016-9478-9"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_28_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSE.2015.73"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_29_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4018\/jdm.2007040102"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_30_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1049\/ic:20040485"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_31_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2021.3082074"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_32_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1985793.1985832"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_33_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1453101.1453106"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_34_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/567793.567795"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_35_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1368088.1368160"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_36_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00107510500052444"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_37_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5465\/amj.2007.27169153"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_38_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2597073.2597113"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_39_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijinfomgt.2018.11.015"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_40_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.67.026112"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_41_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/MSR.2009.5069497"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_42_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2010.81"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_43_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-55128-4_21"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_44_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2016.2584053"},{"issue":"10","key":"e_1_3_3_45_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"Social debt in software engineering: Insights from industry","volume":"6","author":"Tamburri Damian A.","year":"2015","unstructured":"Damian A. Tamburri, Philippe Kruchten, Patricia Lago, and Hans van Vliet. 2015. Social debt in software engineering: Insights from industry. Journal of Internet Services and Applications 6, 10 (2015), 1\u201317.","journal-title":"Journal of Internet Services and Applications"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_46_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2522968.2522971"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_47_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2019.2901490"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_48_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3282308.3282332"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_49_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3274451"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_50_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSE.2009.5070503"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_51_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/776816.776867"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_52_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3106237.3106287"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_53_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1882291.1882313"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_54_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1985793.1985831"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_55_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSE.2012.6227164"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_56_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2014.2349496"}],"container-title":["ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3569949","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3569949","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T18:07:51Z","timestamp":1750183671000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3569949"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,26]]},"references-count":55,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,31]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3569949"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3569949","relation":{},"ISSN":["1049-331X","1557-7392"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1049-331X","type":"print"},{"value":"1557-7392","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,26]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2021-03-30","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2022-08-24","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2023-05-26","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}