Metrics and Models

CHAOSS metrics are data points that can be measured on an individual basis, and they are meant to answer one basic question about the health of the community. Metrics models are collections of metrics that are brought together to provide deeper context and answer more complex questions about a community’s health.

Metrics Releases

CHAOSS metrics are identified and defined using a continuous contribution process. The metrics are officially released biannually following a 30 day comment period. CHAOSS metrics were debated in working groups and undergo a 30 day comment period to ensure validity. Released metrics are only a subset of many possible metrics. CHAOSS acknowledges that more metrics exist and is working to identify and release new metrics in the future. If you would like to learn more about metrics, suggest new metrics, and or help define metrics please visit our participate page.

The CHAOSS project recognizes that there are ethical and legal challenges when using the metrics and software provided by the CHAOSS community. Ethical challenges exist around protecting community members and empowering them with their personal information. Legal challenges exist around GDPR and similar laws or regulations that protect personal information of community members. Particular challenges may arise in the use that is specific to your context.

Search the Metrics and Models Knowledge Base

CHAOSS metrics are sorted into Topic Areas for consumption. Topic areas describe the general context the metric measures. Metrics may have more than one Topic Area. Metrics are searchable by context, measureable phenomena, CHAOSS working groups and related keywords. The metrics include a detail page with definitions, objectives, and examples.
Topic Areas

Organization

A group of people, external to an open source event, project, or ecosystem, who contribute time and resources to the success of the project.
7 articles
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Platform

The collaborative places (e.g., platforms and technologies) where a community performs work.
29 articles
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Software

A technical solution developed and managed by an open source community
15 articles
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Contribution

An addition or improvement, in any form made to an event, project, or ecosystem
24 articles
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Event

An in-person, virtual, or hybrid occurrence where the community comes together to discuss or present issues.
8 articles
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Governance and Leadership

The processes, policies, and individuals responsible for steering an open source event, project, or ecosystem.
8 articles
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Lifecycle

The time it takes to complete an event, project, or ecosystem-related task
16 articles
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Contributor

A person/entity who makes an addition or improvement to an event, project, or ecosystem
16 articles
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Community

A group of people that work together on shared goals. Inclusive of event, project, and ecosystem
7 articles
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Ecosystem

A collection of open source projects that, collectively, define a shared technical concern.
9 articles
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Release History

CHAOSS metrics are released continuously. The regular release is when we update the version number, update the full release notes, and make a big announcement. These releases occur one to two times a year and may correspond with the dates of a CHAOSScon event. Prior to regular release, continuous released metrics go through a comment period of at least 30 days.

Continuous Metric Contributions Since Last Release

(Scheduled for Release 2022-10)

Release 2022-04 Notes:

  • PDF of released CHAOSS Metrics - English (v.2022-04)

  • PDF of released CHAOSS Metrics - Chinese (v.2022-04)

  • Common WG
    • New metrics include:
      • Occasional Contributors
  • Diversity & Inclusion WG
    • New metrics include:
      • Project demographics
      • Event Accessibility
  • Evolution WG
    • New metrics include:
      • Change Request Reviews
      • Change Request Commits
    • Name Change/Revision:
      • Code Change to Code Change Commits
  • Risk WG
    • New metrics include:
      • Defect Resolution Time
    • Name Change/Revision
      • CII Best Practices Badge to OpenSSF Best Practices Badge
  • Value WG
    • New metrics include:
      • Contributor Recommendability
    • Metric Removed:
      • Social Listening moved to metrics models
      • Project Popularity moved to metrics models

Release 2021-10 Notes:

Common WG

  • Focus Area Name Revisions:
    • People (was "Who")
    • Contribution (was "What")
    • Time (was "When")
    • Place (was "Where")
  • New metrics include:
    • Bot Activity
    • Clones
    • Collaboration Platform Activity
    • Event Locations
    • Language Distribution
  • Metric Revision:
    • Technical Forks

Diversity & Inclusion WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Documentation Discoverability
    • Inclusive Experience at Event
    • Psychological Safety
  • Name Change/Revision:
    • Attendee Demographics and Speaker Demographics merged into Event Demographics

Evolution WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Contribution Attribution

Risk WG

  • New Focus Area:
    • Dependency Risk Assessment
  • New metrics include:
    • Libyears
    • Upstream Code Dependencies

Value WG

  • New Focus Area:
    • Academic Value
  • New metrics include:
    • Academic Open Source Project impact
    • Organizational Influence

Release 2021-03 Notes:

Common WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Technical fork
    • Burstiness
    • Review Cycle Duration within a Change Request

Diversity & Inclusion WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Chat Platform Inclusivity
    • Documentation Accessibility
    • Project Burnout

Evolution WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Branch lifecycle
    • Change Request Acceptance ratio
  • Name Change/Revision:
    • Change Requests accepted
    • Change Requests declined
    • Change Requests Duration
    • Change Requests

Risk WG

  • New metrics include:
    • SPDX Document
    • Bus Factor

Value WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Project popularity
  • Name Change/Revision:
    • Social Listening

Release 2020-08 Notes:

Common WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Contributor Location
    • Time to Close
    • Types of Contributions

Diversity & Inclusion WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Documentation Usability
    • Inclusive Leadership
    • Issue Label Inclusivity
  • New focus area - Project and Community

Evolution WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Inactive Contributors
    • New Contributors
  • The Reviews metric was revised

Risk WG

  • No new metrics this release
  • The Elephant Factor metric was revised

Value WG

  • No new metrics this release
  • The SCMS metric was revised
  • Work group focused on restructuring and creation of new focus areas - Organizational Value, Individual Value, and Communal Value
  • All previously released metrics were assigned to the new focus areas

Release 2020-01 Notes:

Common WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Activity Dates and Times
    • Time to First Response
    • Contributors
  • Restructured and renamed focus areas
  • Organizational Diversity remains unchanged from previous release.

    Diversity & Inclusion WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Sponsorship
    • Board/Council Diversity
  • Improved clarity on several metrics that were in the previous release

Evolution WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Issue Age
    • Issue Response Time
    • Issue Resolution Duration
    • New Contributors Closing Issues
  • Updated focus areas: Refactored the "Code Development" focus area into 3 separate focus areas to more closely align with other working groups. Rather than having one broad focus area with multiple subsections, we decided our intent would be better communicated by making each of these subsections into their own focus areas.The 3 separate focus areas include:
    • Code Development Activity
    • Code Development Efficiency
    • Code Development Process Quality
  • Kept the other 2 focus areas (Issue Resolution and Community Growth) the same.
  • No major changes were made to already existing metrics.

Risk WG

  • New metrics include:
    • OSI Approved Licenses
    • Licenses Declared
    • Test Coverage (Updated)
    • Elephant Factor
    • Committers
  • Focused on increasing metrics coverage in the general areas of CNCF Core Infrastructure badging and licensing.
  • License Count was removed from the release. It is being replaced by the Licenses Declared metric.
  • Software Bill of Materials was removed from the release. It is being reworked as the SPDX Document metric for the next release.

Value WG

  • New metrics include:
    • Social Currency Metric System (SCMS)
    • Job Opportunities
  • A new focus area of Ecosystem Value was developed

Release 2019-08 Notes