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This study employs empirical software engineering techniques to analyze foundational quantum software repositories, revealing patterns of contributor migration and cross-project knowledge transfer. The findings indicate that while some projects evolve into sustained communities, others see contributors integrate concepts into established ecosystems or continue through new software artefacts. This research highlights the dynamics of community evolution and the persistence of concepts across the quantum software landscape, offering insights into the longevity and impact of software development efforts.
Contributor migration patterns reveal that quantum software concepts often transcend individual repositories, shaping broader ecosystems.
Driven by contributions from academia, industry, and open-source communities, the quantum software ecosystem is rapidly growing. Across this ecosystem, new concepts often emerge through software artefacts accompanying scientific publications as well as through sustained development in larger communities. However, many repositories receive development efforts only over a limited period of time, raising the question whether their concepts persist beyond individual repositories. In this paper, we apply established empirical software engineering techniques to analyse a set of foundational quantum software repositories. We combine cross-repository activity with contributor relationships to study the evolution of communities. Our analysis provides empirical evidence of contributor migration patterns and indications of cross-project knowledge transfer. We observe multiple development paths: projects may evolve into sustained communities, contributors may integrate concepts into established ecosystems, or activity may continue through new and follow-up software artefacts. Our observations provide an initial empirical perspective on how concepts and influence persist across repository boundaries in quantum software ecosystems.
