| authors | Schuur, H.W. van der; Jansen, R.L.; Brinkkemper, S. |
| source | Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering, (2011), pp. 201-210 |
| full text | [Full text]
|
| publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
| URL publisher | [Website publisher]
|
| document type | Article in proceedings |
| version | Final Author version |
| disciplines | Informatica |
| abstract | Knowledge of in-the-field software operation is acquired
unsophisticatedly: acquisition processes are implemented
ad hoc, application-specific and are only triggered when endusers
experience severe failures. Vendors that do acquire such
knowledge structurally from their software applications, often are
unsuccessful in visualizing it in a consistent and uniform manner.
A generic approach to acquisition and presentation of software
operation knowledge reduces the time vendors need to integrate
acquisition logic into their applications, as well as the time needed
to analyze, compare and present uniform software operation data
resulting from in-the-field software operation. This paper proposes
a technique for software operation knowledge acquisition
and presentation through generic recording and visualization of
software operation. A prototype tool implementing this technique
is presented, as well as an extensive empirical evaluation of
the tool using an eclectic set of instruments (an experiment,
two case studies and expert focus group discussions) involving
three widely-used software applications. Results show that the
technique is expected to reduce software maintenance effort and
increase comprehension of end-user software operation. |
| keywords | software maintenance, bug localization, program comprehension, software process improvement, binary instrumentation, software feedback, empirical studies |
