Please note: This PhD seminar will take place online.
Partha Chakraborty, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
Supervisor: Professor Mei Nagappan
Software bugs are complex, and resolving them consumes a significant portion of developers’ time. The quality of the software, customer satisfaction, and the productivity of the software development team depend on efficient bug resolution. To assist in these situations, researchers have introduced bug localization tools. Despite the availability of many automated bug localization tools, their practical adoption is low. This low adoption rate highlights a misalignment between these tools’ capabilities and developers’ needs. Therefore, understanding developers’ perceptions and expectations is crucial to bridging this gap and improving the effectiveness of bug localization tools.
In this study, we present a comprehensive mixed-methods investigation involving qualitative interviews with six senior software practitioners and a quantitative survey of 95 developers to understand developers’ perspectives and expectations of bug localization tools. Our study shows that developers are open to using automated bug localization tools as long as they are reliable and perform well. However, they have expressed concerns about the accuracy, performance, and potential leakage of intellectual property when adopting these tools. This study emphasizes the need for more accurate and granular bug localization tools to keep pace with the increasing complexity and size of modern codebases. Additionally, effectively communicating the benefits of these tools to the developer community is crucial for encouraging their adoption.