Collaboration Quantified: Lessons from Open Source Developer Networks

A project with 6,000 contributors can rely on just 43 core developers. Learn how network analysis reveals the hidden connections that truly drive success.

#1about 3 minutes

Understanding the true cost of team collaboration

Collaboration is just one mode of team interaction and its overhead increases non-linearly, which can hurt performance if not managed.

#2about 4 minutes

Modeling the relationship between team size and performance

A quadratic function demonstrates that as a team grows, the increasing number of connections can lead to underperformance if collaboration patterns are not adjusted.

#3about 5 minutes

Differentiating between operational and strategic professional networks

Professional networks are composed of an operational network for daily tasks and a strategic network for long-term goals, with different growth patterns.

#4about 2 minutes

How to visualize collaboration networks using Jira data

By analyzing interactions within Jira issues, you can build a graph that visualizes the collaboration network and identifies critical connection points.

#5about 6 minutes

Identifying the small core network in open source projects

Analysis of large open source projects reveals that a small, highly interconnected core group of contributors is responsible for holding the entire network together.

#6about 2 minutes

Using articulation points to identify single points of failure

Articulation points in a collaboration graph represent individuals whose departure would fragment the network, highlighting key person dependencies and project risks.

#7about 2 minutes

Actionable questions to assess your own collaboration networks

Evaluate the health of your own work relationships by asking key questions about your operational network, strategic connections, and network robustness.