LinuxFest Northwest 2019: Baling Wire, Bailing Buckets, or Bailing Out
Channel: linuxfestnorthwest
Date: 29/04/2019

Presented by Kaylea Champion

Bugs and problems are a reality in software engineering. Some bugs threaten to sink entire application stacks and lurk undetected, while others are low-priority irritants. Some projects are able to improve rapidly and respond to issues, while others struggle. Meanwhile, our distributions are composed of thousands of projects. As developers, users, and supporters of FLOSS, how can we tell the difference between the everyday reality of imperfect ever-changing work and the signs of pending disaster? What are the signals of health and risk for a FLOSS project? In this talk, I'll translate recent findings in computer science and social science research into The Awful Eight -- eight practical signs of potential trouble in a free software project, each with suggested strategies and resources for developers and users to detect and address them.