The Multifaceted Nature of Mentoring in OSS: Strategies, Qualities, and Ideal Outcomes
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Mentorship in open source software (OSS) is a vital, multifaceted process that includes onboarding newcomers, fostering skill development, and enhancing community building. This study examines task-focused mentoring strategies that help mentees complete their tasks and the ideal personal qualities and outcomes of good mentorship in OSS communities. We conducted two surveys to gather contributor perceptions: the first survey, with 70 mentors, mapped 17 mentoring challenges to 21 strategies that help support mentees. The second survey, with 85 contributors, assessed the importance of personal qualities and ideal mentorship outcomes. Our findings not only provide actionable strategies to help mentees overcome challenges and become successful contributors but also guide current and future mentors and OSS communities in understanding the personal qualities that are the cornerstone of good mentorship and the outcomes that mentor-mentee pairs should aspire to achieve.
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Science Applications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G11630931, Collaborative Research: Learning Software Engineering by Contributing to Real Projects With Chatbot Assistance, G2214935549, CHS: Large: Collaborative Research: Gender-Inclusive Open Source through Gender-Inclusive Tools, G413247060, A Learning Environment for an Open-Source Contribution Model, Scaffolding Computational Thinking in Introductory Computer Science through a Conversational Agent, G4771968897, G4903105778, G5339743583, Collaborative Research: Learning Software Engineering by Contributing to Real Projects With Chatbot Assistance, G6338696783, Beginnings: Enabling access for underserved community college computer science students in artificial intelligence with micro internship and industry mentorship, Scaffolding Computational Thinking in Introductory Computer Science through a Conversational Agent, G855168022
OpenAlex ID: W4411234025