Project Evaluation Activity V1

Project Evaluation

Preparation:

Description	Learners will gain an understanding of the breadth of available FOSS projects. Learners will also gain an understanding of the identifying characteristics of FOSS projects including pattern of contributions, patterns of commits, programming languages used, and more.
Source
Prerequisite Knowledge	Completion of Browsing a Forge Activity or understanding of SourceForge and Ohloh; Understanding of course in which students will be participating in an HFOSS project.
Estimated Time to Completion	60-90 minutes
Learning Objectives	Ability to: 1)Utilize the rubric to identify likely HFOSS projects.
Materials/Environment	SIGCSE paper Access to Internet/Web and web browser.
Additional Information	Lists of projects
Rights	Licensed CC BY-SA

Background:

This 8 minute video gives you an overview of rubric and how it is used.

[ Watch the video.]

Directions:

This activity is a walkthrough of evaluating the Mifos project.

Part 1-Evaluate Mission Critical Criteria

Evaluate Viability

1. Size/Scale/Complexity - An ideal project should be neither overly simple nor overly complex. One heuristic to use is the number of contributors as an indicator project complexity.
   1. Go to Ohloh.net, type Mifos into the Search Projects box, Click on Mifos to see the Project Summary page
   2. Scroll down to the Community area and calculate the average number of contributors in the last 12 months. The average was 9 so it passed the minimum average number of contributors metric of 6.
   3. Go to the Mifos web page and choose Tech Overview from the Contributors tab. From examination of the technology stack, the architecture looks modular and further search shows it is documented elsewhere on the site.
   4. Result-Based on the modular design and meeting the minimum average number of contributors metric, the project is scored a 2 for size/scale/complexity.

2. Activity - To support student participation a project should be reasonably active. Number of committers can be used as an indicator of activity.
   1. Return to the Mifos project summary page in Ohloh. Scroll to the Activity area on the page.
   2. Compute the 12-month average of commits. The 12-month average was about 108, much higher than the minimum average level of commits recommended for activity.
   3. Result-Because commits exceed the favorable level of activity for this project it may be a little large/complex. However, still appears manageable, the project is scored a 2 for activity.

3. Community - A suitable project has an active user community. While it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the activity of a user community, some indicators include a regular history of project downloads and documentation updates over time, current activity on user mailing lists, and testimonials on the project web site.
   1. Examine download activity
      1. Go to Sourceforge.net and enter Mifos into the search box.
      2. Choose Mifos-Microfinance Open Source from the search results.
      3. Click on the number of downloads that is listed on the project page.
      4. Change the date range to give a graph of downloads over the last year.
   2. Examine mailing list activity.
      1. Return to the Mifos web page. From the Contributor tab choose the Join the Mailing List link to get access to the project mailing list.
      2. Once granted access, examine the Developer mailing list for activity.
   3. Examine the IRC channel
      1. Again from the Contributor tab on the Mifos web page, choose the IRC link.
      2. Examine the IRC channel for activity.
   4. Result-Downloads appear steady so the project has a community of users. Developers are responsive on mailing list and developers have a presence on IRC. Project is scored a 3.

Evaluate Approachability

Here you are evaluating a project's on-ramp to contribution, scoring as follows:

1-Insufficient-Few or no pointers on how to become involved.

2-Sufficient-Suggestions about how to get involved other than contributing money with accompanying high-level instructions.

3-Ideal-Obvious link to get started, list of suggestions for things to do and detailed instructions.

1. Link to get started-From the Contributors tab on the Mifos web page there is a Get Started page with links to what Mifos is, how to contribute, community processes, and tools used.
2. List of suggestions for things to do - Clicking the Get Involved link on the Get Started page provides a list of ways to contribute including testing, translation, development and documentation. There is also a volunteer bug queue listed as a good way for developers to get started.
3. Detailed instructions-Instructions are provided in many areas including process, architecture, licensing, product functionality, and developer documentation.
4. Result-Was scored a 3.

Evaluate Suitability

1. Appropriate Artifacts -Since evaluation is dependent on class objectives, in this example we'll assume an objective is to learn the process of working in authentic development project through contributing bug fixes.
   1. Opportunities to contribute bug fixes - Examined the volunteer bite-sized bug queue accessible from the Volunteer page under the Contributors tab on the Mifos web page. There were 10 open bugs for new contributors. There were many more listed for more experienced contributors.
   2. Documentation on how to contribute bug fixes - From the Tech Overview page accessible from the Contributors tab on the web site there is a link to details on the code submission process.
   3. Result - May score a 1, 2 or 3 depending on the number of bugs suitable for students to tackle and class size.
2. Contributor Support-Does the project have a high volume of guidance to help students as they learn?
   1. Are communication tools documented?-Communication tools are documented under the Collaboration and Communication section of the Development Tools page which can be accessed from the Contributors tab on the Mifos web site. Instructions on how to access the mailing lists with tips on how to participate are available from the Communications page under the Community tab.
   2. Do developers have a web presence?-Examination of IRC logs shows scattered activity over the last week.
   3. Are operating processed documented?-Links to information about coding standards, code submission process, and commit privileges process can be found on the Tech Overview page accessible from the Contributors tab. The process for making feature requests and for prioritizing feature request is available on the Roadmap page accessible from the Product tab.
   4. Do questions posed have timely and supportive answers?-Responses to user mailing list and [1] developer mailing list over the last month have timely and supportive responses.
   5. Result - Not a lot of activity on IRC, but mailing lists show lots of timely feedback and communication methods and operating procedures are well documented, score a 3.

Part 2-Evaluate Secondary Criteria

Since no mission-critical criteria were scored lower than a 2 the project is then evaluated on secondary criteria. Otherwise, the project would have been considered not suitable for student participation.

Evaluate Viability

1. Domain
   1. Does this project require domain knowledge that may be difficult for students to learn? - As a domain microfinance students should be able to grasp it well enough to contribute a bug fix, which is the learning objective assumed in this example.
   2. Result - Score a 2 since the domain isn’t as simple to grasp as say a desktop application for word processing or compressing files.
2. Maturity
   1. To have the organization to support student learning, the project should have at least one stable production release - The roadmap page accessible from product tab on the Mifos web site lists releases.
   2. Result - The Download Mifos page accessible from the Product page says 2.6.0 is the 4th major community-supported release. Scored a 3.
3. User Support
   1. The project should have clear instructions for downloading, installing, and using the project - There is a demo server, video, and slide presentation that explains system functionality. This information can be found looking at pages listed under the Product tab that can be used to learn about the system. There is also a user manual available from the Support tab. On the Download Mifos page, also listed under the Product tab, there are detailed instructions related to installation, configuration, system requirements, and troubleshooting.
   2. Result - Given the wealth of detailed documentation, score a 3.
4. Roadmap
   1. Student learning is best supported by projects that have a roadmap that includes new feature development, a method for users to submit new feature requests and a process for identifying how new features are prioritized - The process for making feature requests and for prioritizing feature request is available on the Roadmap page accessible from the Product tab. The Roadmap page has features were implemented in the last release, but no listing for the next release.
   2. Result - Scored a 2 because there is no information listed for feature planning in the next release.

Evaluate Approachability

1. Contribution Types
   1. Does the project contain opportunities for multiple types of contribution and of the type that fits the class? - There are multiple projects for testers, tech writers, and developers. These can be seen on the Volunteer Projects page.
   2. Result - May be a 1, 2 or 3 depending on whether the number of bugs is suitable for students is enough given the class size.
2. Openness to Contributions
   1. Acceptance of a student contribution to a project provides valuable affirmation to student learning. Determine whether the project accepts student patches. - The process for contribution is documented.
   2. Result - Score a 3 because the contribution process is documented.
3. Student Friendliness
   1. Do community members moderate the tone of communication? Review mailing lists and IRC to gauge tone.
   2. Result -

Evaluate Suitability

1. Project Description
   1. Students must be able to understand the purpose of the project. Does the project clearly describe the product? -
   2. Result -
2. Platform
   1. What software and hardware platform does the FOSS project run on?
   2. Are there resources to support these platforms?
   3. Are students familiar with the platforms?
   4. Result -
3. Development Features - Is the class dependent on specific development features?
   1. Programming language -
   2. Development environment -
   3. Supporting technologies -
   4. Result -