Managing Open Source Software Development Projects With Semantic Web Technology

In open source software (OSS) project development typically tools and models originating from heterogeneous background are used. Project managers want to analyze the state of project across these artifacts but often face the challenge of linking semi-structured information across artifacts, e.g., source code versions, mailing list entries, and bug reports. Manual analysis based on finding related information between data sources is costly, errorprone, and often brings results too late for decision making. In this paper we propose linking OSS artifacts with a semantic web technology approach: the engineering knowledge base (EKB). The EKB consists of two types of ontology layers: 1. the common domain knowledge layer and 2. local tool knowledge layer. Mappings between local and domain ontology layers allow querying the local knowledge using the more stable domain ontology syntax. This EKB foundation enables the design of applications, such as a project monitoring system. We empirically evaluate the feasibility, effort, and complexity of an EKB-based project monitoring system based on real-world data.