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complementary points of view, at times does not allow us to obtain a broader
vision of the project. In the Libre Software Engineering Web Site [86] we can
follow these initiatives in more detail.
7.7. Future work
Having described the brief but intense history of software engineering as ap-
plied to free software, we can say that it is still taking its first steps. Many im-
portant aspects are still pending analysis and detailed examination until we
can find a model that at least partly explains how free software is generated.
The issues that will need to be tackled in the near future include the classifica-
tion of free software projects, the creation of a methodology based inasmuch
as possible on automated analysis and the use of acquired knowledge to build
models that help us to understand how free software develops at the same
time as facilitating decision-making on the basis of acquired experience.
Another aspect that should not be overlooked and that is starting to be con-
sidered now is the validity of classical engineering methods in the field of free
software across all software engineering intensifications. Hence, for example,
the laws of software evolution postulated by Lehman ("Metrics and laws of
software evolution - the nineties view" [165]) at the beginning of the nineteen
seventies and updated and expanded on in the eighties and nineties appear
not to be fulfilled unconditionally in the development of some free software
projects ("Understanding open source software evolution: applying, breaking
and rethinking the laws of software evolution", 2003 [199]).
Currently, one of the most serious deficiencies is the lack of a strict classifica-
tion so that free software projects can be classed into different categories. At
present, the classification criteria are too broad, and projects with very dispa-
rate organisational, technical or other characteristics are all put into the same
bag. The argument that Linux, with an extensive community and large num-
ber of developers, has a different nature and does not behave in the same way
as a much more limited project in numbers of developers and users, is very
true. In all events, a more detailed classification would make it possible to
reuse the experience acquired in other similar projects (in other words, with
similar characteristics), making it easier to make forecasts, and making it pos-
sible to foresee risks, etc.
The second important aspect that free software engineering needs to tackle,
closely connected to the preceding point and current trends, is the creation of
a methodology and tools to support it. A clear and concise methodology will
make it possible to study all projects on an equal footing, discover their current
status, learn how they have evolved, and of course, classify them. Tools are
essential when it comes to dealing with this problem, since once created they
make it possible to analyse thousands of projects with minimum additional
effort. One of the objectives of free software engineering is to make it possible
to study a project in depth on the basis of a limited set of parameters showing