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IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
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Papers presented at the first workshop on empirical studies of programmers on Empirical studies of programmers
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OOPSLA '89 Conference proceedings on Object-oriented programming systems, languages and applications
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ICSE '94 Proceedings of the 16th international conference on Software engineering
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ESP '97 Papers presented at the seventh workshop on Empirical studies of programmers
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
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IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
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International Journal of Human-Computer Studies - Best of empirical studies of programmers 7
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Managing Risk in Software Maintenance
IEEE Software
Impact of experience on maintenance skills
Journal of Software Maintenance: Research and Practice
The non-homogeneous maintenance periods: a case study of software modifications
ICSM '96 Proceedings of the 1996 International Conference on Software Maintenance
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Nordic Journal of Computing
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IWPC '01 Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Program Comprehension
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Journal of Software Maintenance: Research and Practice
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IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
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IWPC '05 Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Program Comprehension
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IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Sizing Maintenance Tasks for Web Applications
CSMR '07 Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering
A Systematic Review of Theory Use in Software Engineering Experiments
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Delocalized Plans and Program Comprehension
IEEE Software
Modifiability measurement from a task complexity perspective: A feasibility study
ESEM '09 Proceedings of the 2009 3rd International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
Information and Software Technology
Modeling maintenance projects risk effects on ERP performance
Computer Standards & Interfaces
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This paper presents results from a quasi-experiment that investigates how the sequence in which maintenance tasks are performed affects the time required to perform them and the functional correctness of the changes made. Specifically, the study compares how time required and correctness are affected by (1) starting with the easiest change task and progressively performing the more difficult tasks (Easy-First), versus (2) starting with the most difficult change task and progressively performing the easier tasks (Hard-First). In both cases, the experimental tasks were performed on two alternative types of design of a Java system to assess whether the choice of the design strategy moderates the effects of task order on effort and correctness. The results show that the time spent on making the changes is not affected significantly by the task order of the maintenance tasks, regardless of the type of design. However, the correctness of the maintainability tasks is significantly higher when the task order of the change tasks is Easy-First compared to Hard-First, again regardless of design. A possible explanation for the results is that a steeper learning curve (Hard-First) causes the programmer to create software that is less maintainable overall.