Towards an Open Source Development Process - Evaluating the Migration to an Open Source Project by Means of the Capability Maturity Model

In this paper we review the ongoing development of a Web-based community system that has been migrated from a closed software development to an open source project. We identify three different phases in the migration process where the development process changed significantly. We analyse these phases by means of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The insights gained show the implications of such a migration process towards open source concerning the process quality of a development process. They also show underlying assumptions of the CMM that do not totally match with developments in this specific case study. As a helpful outcome, our reflection about the ongoing software development process helped identify two crucial factors: reflection about the process is possible even at lower levels and how to handle people's fluctuation to sustain a development project.