An integrated decision modeling framework for multi-organizational social network management

Development of community-based software requires collaboration of many stakeholders across multiple organizations forming a complex social network. Here, a novel decision-modeling framework is proposed to allow the stakeholders of software development to perform what-if analyses before making their decisions. The first phase of the framework involves mimicking individual human decisions and interactions, identifying their conflicting goals, and modeling a software development process. The second phase is designed to help project managers devise near-optimal workforce assignments considering the underlying social network. The proposed modeling framework is illustrated with enhancement request processes in Kuali, an open source software development project involving 12 universities.