01693nas a2200133   4500008004100000022001400041245005100055210005100106260004200157520128600199100001901485700001901504856003601523       2009                        eng d  a1913-610200aMeasuring Modularity in Open Source Code Bases0 aMeasuring Modularity in Open Source Code Bases  aOttawabTalent First Networkc04/20093 a Modularity of an open source software code base has been associated with growth of the software development community, the incentives for voluntary code contribution, and a reduction in the number of users who take code without contributing back to the community. As a theoretical construct, modularity links OSS to other domains of research, including organization theory, the economics of industry structure, and new product development. However, measuring the modularity of an OSS design has proven difficult, especially for large and complex systems.

In this article, we describe some preliminary results of recent research at Carleton University that examines the evolving modularity of large-scale software systems. We describe a measurement method and a new modularity metric for comparing code bases of different size, introduce an open source toolkit that implements this method and metric, and provide an analysis of the evolution of the Apache Tomcat application server as an illustrative example of the insights gained from this approach. Although these results are preliminary, they open the door to further cross-discipline research that quantitatively links the concerns of business managers, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and open source software developers. 
1 aMuegge, Steven1 aMilev, Roberto  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/245