# Analyzing the Productivity of GitHub Teams based on Formation Phase Activity

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.03423 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.03423/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 6 Nov 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [A Test of Time: Predicting the Sustainable Success of Online Collaboration in Wikipedia](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.19150/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Our goal is to understand the characteristics of high-performing teams on GitHub. Towards this end, we collect data from software repositories and evaluate teams by examining differences in productivity. Our study focuses on the team formation phase, the first six months after repository creation. To better understand team activity, we clustered repositories based on the proportion of their work activities and discovered three work styles in teams: toilers, communicators, and collaborators. Based on our results, we contend that early activities in software development repositories on GitHub establish coordination processes that enable effective collaborations over time.