Critical Success Factors of Motivation and Consumer Involvement for Open Source Software Projects: A Qualitative Case Stud

Critical success factors (CSF) of software development projects are components that are essential for the ultimate success of the project. Because of significant differences in the structures and processes of traditional versus open source software (OSS) development, it was reasonable to hypothesize that CSFs for these two project types might differ in important ways. Developer motivation and consumer involvement are two CSFs that might differ across traditional and OSS projects, but little research had focused on these CSFs in OSS projects. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the nature of CSFs regarding developer motivation and consumer involvement for OSS development projects. Data for this study was derived from semi-structured interviews of 10 OSS project managers, participant journals, and 10 software developers. The more significant findings pointed to three major categorical themes, encapsulated as main critical success factors to meet customer needs, critical success factors involving the customer, and motivation as a significant, perceived critical success factor. Recommendations for future practice include increasing developer motivation, accommodating customer involvement, and to maximizing OSS project success. Future recommendations include that future research could study the quantity and quality of OSS projects (by type), as these demand specific constructs not studied here. Another recommendation for future research is based on the drawback of the composition of the study respondents.