Software architecture practices in open source shaped by social and ethical factors
Socio-technical and Ethical Dimensions of Architecture Practices in FLOSS
Software Engineering
Summary
Figuring out how to design big open source software projects is important but often unclear because decisions are scattered and not well documented. The paper looks at how social rules, teamwork, and ethics influence these design choices in open source projects. The authors plan to study several projects, create ideas and tools with developers and teachers to improve transparency and fairness in designs, and test these ideas in real projects and classes.
What this means in practice
- •For open source project maintainers: Use lightweight practices to make architectural decisions more visible and inclusive in community-driven software projects.
- •For software engineering educators: Adopt teaching formats that encourage explicit and ethical consideration of architecture in open source software education.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Sven Thielen
Abstract
This project investigates how software architecture practices in Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) are shaped by socio-technical and ethical factors, and how education can support more explicit, inclusive, and reflective architectural work. Motivated by FLOSS's role in digital sovereignty, it is observed that architectural decisions are often undocumented and scattered across issues, pull requests, and mailing lists. While prior research has studied architectural artifacts, erosion, and communication, the interplay between architectural work, governance arrangements, and ethical commitments in FLOSS remains underexplored. The research follows a three-phase design: (1) multi-method case studies of 3-4 domain-pairs of architecturally non-trivial FLOSS projects, (2) framework and intervention design with practitioners and educators, and (3) pilot evaluations in projects and courses. It will produce (i) cross-case empirical evidence on FLOSS architecture practices, (ii) a conceptual framework linking architecture practices to socio-technical conditions and ethical dimensions, and (iii) lightweight practices and teaching formats that render architectural work more explicit and inclusive.