Contributor Dependency

Contributor Dependency measures and analyzes the dependencies or relationships between different contributors within a project. It explores how contributors rely on each other, collaborate, and interact in terms of code contributions, reviews, and other collaborative activities.

Contributor dependency shows the relationship between contributors or entities within a project, where the actions or outputs of one contributor depend on the inputs or outputs of another.

This chart displays individual identities, not merge contributors, as in Community Management.

Even if certain identities are combined into one contributor in CM, they will still appear as separate entities in the Insights leaderboard charts.

This distinction exists because merging contributors means combining the contributions of a single individual working under different accounts or identities.

The separation of identities in Insights is maintained for privacy reasons and GDPR compliance.

Analyze the chart

Contributor Dependency

Each activity is considered a separate contribution. For example, opening a PR and closing a PR are counted as two distinct contributions.

Why is this metric important?

• Collaboration: It identifies which contributors frequently interact, exchange ideas, review each other's work, and collaborate on code changes.

• Knowledge Sharing and Expertise: Understanding these dependencies can help project maintainers identify subject matter experts, encourage knowledge sharing, and allocate resources effectively.

• Project Health and Sustainability: By analyzing Contributor Dependency, project maintainers can evaluate the health and sustainability of the project. Dependencies that are concentrated around a few contributors may pose risks if those contributors become less active or leave the project.