PrePrint: Onboarding in Open Source Software Projects

In today's world, many companies turn to open source projects as a source for increased productivity and innovation. A major challenge with managing this kind of development is the onboarding of new developers into virtual teams which drive such projects. However, there is little guidance on how to arrange the initiation of new members into such teams and how to overcome the learning curve. This case study on Open Source Software projects shows that mentoring can have a significant impact on onboarding new members into virtual software development teams.