An Empirical Study of Architecture Decision Records in Open-Source Projects

Nome do aluno Enio Garcia de Santana Junior
Título do trabalho An Empirical Study of Architecture Decision Records in Open-Source Projects
Resumo do trabalho Software architecture decisions shape the sustainability, adaptability, and quality of software systems. To make these decisions explicit, Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) have been proposed as a lightweight documentation practice; however, ADR adoption in open-source projects is frequently inconsistent, and empirical evidence connecting ADR practices to repository outcomes and developer behavior remains limited.
This study investigates ADR practices across 921 GitHub repositories, combining repository mining with monthly quality and activity indicators to analyze ADR adoption points, maintenance frequency, documentation richness, and status evolution, as well as the distribution of ADR contributions across core and peripheral developers. Preliminary results show that ADRs are typically brief (median 284 characters), often lack context and trade-off discussion, and are rarely maintained after creation: 78% of ADRs enter repositories already marked as accepted, only 14% ever change status, and 57% of projects record fewer than three ADR updates per year after adoption.
At the repository level, richer ADR documentation is associated with moderately higher collaboration signals: projects in the top quartile of ADR length exhibit, on average, 9% more active contributors per month than projects with minimal ADR documentation, and in a subset of repositories, increases in ADR completeness or maintenance precede subsequent improvements in quality indicators after approximately 3--6 months. At the developer level, ADR authorship and maintenance are concentrated among core contributors, while developer-centric associations with raw productivity are weak, suggesting that ADR engagement reflects stewardship and architectural ownership more than increased output. By providing quantitative evidence on when ADRs are documented, maintained, and socially embedded, this work aims to support evidence-based guidance on lightweight architectural knowledge management in open-source software.
Orientador Eduardo Almeida
Membro Titular 1 (com afiliação) Kiev Santos da Gama
Link para o curriculum lattes http://lattes.cnpq.br/6185519785664724
Membro Titular 2 (com afiliação) Rodrigo Rocha Gomes e Souza
Link para o curriculum lattes http://lattes.cnpq.br/7697794806460975
Suplente 1 (com afiliação) Ivan Machado
Suplente 2 (com afiliação) Wesley Klewerton
Data do exame 09 Mar, 2026
Horário do exame 8:00 AM

 

Data da Defesa: 
09/03/2025 - 08:00
Tipo de Defesa: 
Qualificação de Mestrado