An Information Foraging Theory Perspective on Tools for Debugging, Refactoring, and Reuse Tasks

  • Authors:

  • Scott D. Fleming;Chris Scaffidi;David Piorkowski;Margaret Burnett;Rachel Bellamy;Joseph Lawrance;Irwin Kwan

  • Affiliations:

  • Oregon State University and University of Memphis;Oregon State University;Oregon State University;Oregon State University;IBM Research;Massachusetts Institute of Technology;Oregon State University

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Theories of human behavior are an important but largely untapped resource for software engineering research. They facilitate understanding of human developers’ needs and activities, and thus can serve as a valuable resource to researchers designing software engineering tools. Furthermore, theories abstract beyond specific methods and tools to fundamental principles that can be applied to new situations. Toward filling this gap, we investigate the applicability and utility of Information Foraging Theory (IFT) for understanding information-intensive software engineering tasks, drawing upon literature in three areas: debugging, refactoring, and reuse. In particular, we focus on software engineering tools that aim to support information-intensive activities, that is, activities in which developers spend time seeking information. Regarding applicability, we consider whether and how the mathematical equations within IFT can be used to explain why certain existing tools have proven empirically successful at helping software engineers. Regarding utility, we applied an IFT perspective to identify recurring design patterns in these successful tools, and consider what opportunities for future research are revealed by our IFT perspective.