The bug report duplication problem: an exploratory study

  • Authors:

  • Yguaratã Cerqueira Cavalcanti;Paulo Anselmo Mota Silveira Neto;Daniel Lucrédio;Tassio Vale;Eduardo Santana Almeida;Silvio Romero Lemos Meira

  • Affiliations:

  • Center for Informatics, Federal University of Pernambuco--CIn/UFPE, Pernambuco, Brazil and Reuse in Software Engineering--RiSE, Recife, Brazil;Reuse in Software Engineering--RiSE, Recife, Brazil;Computing Department, Federal University of São Carlos--DC/UFSCar, São Carlos, Brazil and Reuse in Software Engineering--RiSE, Recife, Brazil;Center for Informatics, Federal University of Pernambuco--CIn/UFPE, Pernambuco, Brazil and Reuse in Software Engineering--RiSE, Recife, Brazil;Computer Science Department, Federal University of Bahia--DCC/UFBA, Bahia, Brazil and Reuse in Software Engineering--RiSE, Recife, Brazil;Center for Informatics, Federal University of Pernambuco--CIn/UFPE, Pernambuco, Brazil and Reuse in Software Engineering--RiSE, Recife, Brazil

  • Venue:
  • Software Quality Control
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Duplicate bug report entries in bug trackers have a negative impact on software maintenance and evolution. This is due, among other factors, to the increased time spent on report analysis and validation, which in some cases takes over 20 min. Therefore, a considerable amount of time is lost in duplicate bug report analysis. In order to understand the possible factors that cause bug report duplication and its impact on software development, this paper presents an exploratory study in which bug tracking data from private and open source projects were analyzed. The results show, for example, that all projects we investigated had duplicate bug reports and a considerable amount of time was wasted by this duplication. Furthermore, features such as project lifetime, staff size, and the number of bug reports do not seem to be significant factors for duplication, while others, such as the submitters' profile and the number of submitters, do seem to influence the bug report duplication.