Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017 |
| Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. |
| Pages | 329-340 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| ISBN (electronic) | 9781538609927 |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Nov 2017 |
| Event | 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017 - Shanghai, China Duration: 17 Sept 2017 → 22 Sept 2017 |
Publication series
| Name | Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017 |
|---|
Abstract
Change-based code review, e.g., in the form of pull requests, is the dominant style of code review in practice. An important option to improve review's efficiency is cognitive support for the reviewer. Nevertheless, review tools present the change parts under review sorted in alphabetical order of file path, thus leaving the effort of understanding the construction, connections, and logic of the changes on the reviewer. This leads to the question: How should a code review tool order the parts of a code change to best support the reviewer? We answer this question with a middle-range theory, which we generated inductively in a mixed methods study, based on interviews, an online survey, and existing findings from related areas. Our results indicate that an optimal order is mainly an optimal grouping of the change parts by relatedness. We present our findings as a collection of principles and formalize them as a partial order relation among review orders.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)
- Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
- Computer Science(all)
- Software
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Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2017. p. 329-340 8094433 (Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017).
Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Research › peer review
}
TY - GEN
T1 - On the optimal order of reading source code changes for review
AU - Baum, Tobias
AU - Schneider, Kurt
AU - Bacchelli, Alberto
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017 IEEE. Copyright: Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/11/2
Y1 - 2017/11/2
N2 - Change-based code review, e.g., in the form of pull requests, is the dominant style of code review in practice. An important option to improve review's efficiency is cognitive support for the reviewer. Nevertheless, review tools present the change parts under review sorted in alphabetical order of file path, thus leaving the effort of understanding the construction, connections, and logic of the changes on the reviewer. This leads to the question: How should a code review tool order the parts of a code change to best support the reviewer? We answer this question with a middle-range theory, which we generated inductively in a mixed methods study, based on interviews, an online survey, and existing findings from related areas. Our results indicate that an optimal order is mainly an optimal grouping of the change parts by relatedness. We present our findings as a collection of principles and formalize them as a partial order relation among review orders.
AB - Change-based code review, e.g., in the form of pull requests, is the dominant style of code review in practice. An important option to improve review's efficiency is cognitive support for the reviewer. Nevertheless, review tools present the change parts under review sorted in alphabetical order of file path, thus leaving the effort of understanding the construction, connections, and logic of the changes on the reviewer. This leads to the question: How should a code review tool order the parts of a code change to best support the reviewer? We answer this question with a middle-range theory, which we generated inductively in a mixed methods study, based on interviews, an online survey, and existing findings from related areas. Our results indicate that an optimal order is mainly an optimal grouping of the change parts by relatedness. We present our findings as a collection of principles and formalize them as a partial order relation among review orders.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040538692&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICSME.2017.28
DO - 10.1109/ICSME.2017.28
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85040538692
T3 - Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017
SP - 329
EP - 340
BT - Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2017
Y2 - 17 September 2017 through 22 September 2017
ER -