Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Automation is fundamental to modern software engineering, with platforms such as GitHub providing built-in systems like GitHub Actions to streamline tasks across the software development lifecycle. Similar to traditional open-source software reuse, automated workflows rely heavily on reusable components such as Actions and reusable workflows. While this reliance offers significant productivity benefits, it also introduces critical dependency-related risks within the software supply chain, particularly regarding security vulnerabilities and maintainability. To address these overlooked challenges, this PhD dissertation presents a comprehensive empirical investigation into automation and reuse practices within the GitHub Actions ecosystem. Employing a mixed-methods approach, it combines qualitative survey findings from workflow practitioners with large-scale software repository mining. Through this empirical lens, the research evaluates workflow reuse behaviours, quantifies component outdatedness, maps complex dependency networks, and assesses ecosystem-wide security dimensions. The findings reveal key motivations and selection criteria behind workflow reuse while uncovering widespread vulnerability exposure and maintenance challenges. Ultimately, this work provides actionable guidance and insights for practitioners, tool developers, and researchers to foster a more secure, reliable, and maintainable workflow automation ecosystem.
Source: ORBi UMONS
Author: Onsori Delicheh, Hassan
Institution: University of Mons
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225286477