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The dynamics of leadership and success in software development teams
Lorenzo Betti1, Luca Gallo1,2, Johannes Wachs3,4,5
1Department of Network and Data Science, Central European University, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
From science to industry, teamwork plays a crucial role in knowledge production and innovation. Most studies consider teams as static groups of individuals, thereby failing to capture how the micro-dynamics of collaborative processes and organizational changes determine team success. Here, we leverage fine-grained temporal data on software development teams from three software ecosystems - Rust, JavaScript, and Python - to gain insights into the dynamics of online collaborative projects. Our analysis reveals an uneven workload distribution in teams, with stronger heterogeneity correlated with higher success, and the early emergence of a lead developer carrying out the majority of work. Moreover, we find that a sizeable fraction of projects experience a change of lead developer, with such a transition being more likely in projects led by inexperienced users. Finally, we show that leadership change is associated with faster success growth. Our work contributes to a deeper understanding of the link between team evolution and success in collaborative processes.
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