Abstract

Effective management of open-source software (OSS) projects is vital for their sustainability and success, yet many projects struggle with contributor retention, issue resolution, and maintainer burnout. This study applies Mining Software Repositories (MSR) methodology to empirically investigate the management practices of successful OSS initiatives. By analyzing a quantitative dataset of 32 popular and active repositories, we evaluated metrics such as commit activity, code churn, and developer network topology. The research identifies a set of "effective practices" correlated with long-term project health, emphasizing the need for structured onboarding, transparent decision-making, and automated workflow integration. The resulting insights aim to provide highly actionable strategies for OSS practitioners to build and manage robust collaborative ecosystems.