04051 Abstracts Collection -- Perspectives Workshop: Empirical Theory and the Science of Software Engineering

From 25.01.04 to 29.01.04, the Dagstuhl Seminar 04051 ``Perspectives Workshop: Empirical Theory and the Science of Software Engineering\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

Reading the documentation of invoked API functions in program comprehension

Comprehending an unfamiliar code fragment requires an awareness of explicit usage directives that may be present in the documentation of some invoked functions. Since it is not practical for developers to thoroughly investigate every call, directives may be missed and errors may occur. We previously reported on a tool called eMoose, which high-lights calls to methods with associated directives, and on a controlled comparative lab study in which eMoose users were more successful at fixing bugs in given code fragments. In this paper we attempt to shed light on the factors behind these differences with a detailed analysis of videos from the study. We argue that information foraging theory may explain the subjects ’ reading choices and the impact of our tool. We also suggest ways to structure documentation to increase the prospects of knowledge acquisition. 1

Structuring Documentation to Support State Search: A Laboratory Experiment about Protocol Programming

Abstract. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) often define object protocols. Objects with protocols have a finite number of states and in each state a different set of method calls is valid. Many researchers have developed protocol verification tools because protocols are notoriously difficult to follow correctly. However, recent research suggests that a major challenge for API protocol programmers is effectively searching the state space. Verification is an ineffective guide for this kind of search. In this paper we instead propose Plaiddoc, which is like Javadoc except it organizes methods by state instead of by class and it includes explicit state transitions, state-based type specifications, and rich state relationships. We compare Plaiddoc to a Javadoc control in a betweensubjects laboratory experiment. We find that Plaiddoc participants complete state search tasks in significantly less time and with significantly fewer errors than Javadoc participants

Metaphorical Representation in Collaborative Software Engineering

Finding a useful abstract representation is fundamental to solving many difficult problems in software engineering. In order to better understand how representations are actually used in key collaborative software engineering tasks, this empirical study examined all of the spoken representations of software behavior in 9 domain analysis sessions. It found that about 70 % of them were metaphorical, representing system behavior as physical movement of objects, as perceptual processes, or in anthropomorphic terms ascribing beliefs and desires to the system. The pattern of use of these representations indicates 1) that they were not merely temporary placeholders, but rather their use persisted even when a specialized and more formal vocabulary had been developed, and 2) the metaphoric descriptions appear to reflect actual use of metaphor, rather than just a choice of vocabulary. The use of metaphor is explained in terms of how well they serve human cognitive abilities and collaborative needs. The predominance of metaphorical representations in synchronous collaborative sessions raises important issues about the possible misleading effects of metaphorical thinking. It also raises questions about the compatibility of the spoken representations with other representations (e.g., diagrams, specification languages) that trigger, and capture the results of, the verbal collaborative work

Formulation and Preliminary Test of an Empirical Theory of Coordination in Software Engineering

Motivated by evidence that coordination and dependencies among engineering decisions in a software project are key to better understanding and better methods of software creation, we set out to create empirically testable theory to characterize and make predictions about coordination of engineering decisions. We demonstrate that our theory is capable of expressing some of the main ideas about coordination in software engineering, such as Conway’s law and the effects of information hiding in modular design. We then used software project data to create measures and test two hypotheses derived from our theory. Our results provide preliminary support for our formulations. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2 [Software Engineering]: Management – productivity, programming teams, software process models