Frequent releases in open source software: a systematic review

Context: The need to accelerate software delivery, supporting faster time-to-market and frequent community developer/user feedback are issues that have led to relevant changes in software development practices. One example is the adoption of Rapid Release (RR) by several Open Source Software projects (OSS). This raises the need to know how these projects deal with software release approaches. Goal: Identify the main characteristics of software release initiatives in OSS projects, the motivations behind their adoption, strategies applied, as well as advantages and difficulties found. Method: We conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to reach the stated goal. Results: The SLR includes 33 publications from January 2006 to July 2016 and reveals nine advantages that characterize software release approaches in OSS projects; four challenge issues; three possibilities of implementation and two main motivations towards the adoption of RR; and finally four main strategies to implement it. Conclusion: This study provides an up-to-date and structured understanding of the software release approaches in the context of OSS projects based on findings systematically collected from a list of relevant references in the last decade.