Do software engineers benefit from source code navigation with traceability? - An experiment in software change management.

MÃ¤der, Patrick; Egyed, Alexander

doi:10.1109/ASE.2011.6100095

Do software engineers benefit from source code navigation with traceability? - An experiment in software change management.

by Patrick MÃ¤der, Alexander Egyed

Abstract:

Software traceability is a required component of many software development processes. Advocates of requirements traceability cite advantages like easier program comprehension and support for software maintenance (i.e., software change). However, despite its growing popularity, there exists no published evaluation about the usefulness of requirements traceability. It is important, if not crucial, to investigate whether the use of requirements traceability can significantly support development tasks to eventually justify its costs. We thus conducted a controlled experiment with 71 subjects re-performing real maintenance tasks on two third-party development projects: half of the tasks with and the other half without traceability. Task solutions were recorded on paper and not implemented. Our findings show that subjects with traceability performed on average 24% faster on a given task and created on average 50% more correct solutions - suggesting that traceability not only saves effort but can profoundly improve software maintenance quality.

Reference:

Patrick MÃ¤der, Alexander Egyed, "Do software engineers benefit from source code navigation with traceability? - An experiment in software change management.", pp. 444-447, 2011.

Bibtex Entry:

@Conference{DBLP:conf/kbse/MaderE11,
  Title                    = {Do software engineers benefit from source code navigation with traceability? - An experiment in software change management.},
  Author                   = {Patrick MÃ¤der and Alexander Egyed},
  Booktitle                = {26th International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), Lawrence, Kansas},
  Year                     = {2011},
  Pages                    = {444-447},

  Abstract                 = {Software traceability is a required component of many software development processes. Advocates of requirements traceability cite advantages like easier program comprehension and support for software maintenance (i.e., software change). However, despite its growing popularity, there exists no published evaluation about the usefulness of requirements traceability. It is important, if not crucial, to investigate whether the use of requirements traceability can significantly support development tasks to eventually justify its costs. We thus conducted a controlled experiment with 71 subjects re-performing real maintenance tasks on two third-party development projects: half of the tasks with and the other half without traceability. Task solutions were recorded on paper and not implemented. Our findings show that subjects with traceability performed on average 24% faster on a given task and created on average 50% more correct solutions - suggesting that traceability not only saves effort but can profoundly improve software maintenance quality.},
  Doi                      = {10.1109/ASE.2011.6100095},
  File                     = {Do Developers Benefit From Requirements Traceability:Journals\\JESE 2014 - Do Developers Benefit From Requirements Traceability\\Do Developers Benefit From Requirements Traceability.pdf:PDF},
  Keywords                 = {requirements, traceability, software evolution,userstudy, FWF M1268-N23, FWF P23115-N23}
}