How Software Engineers Use Documentation: The State of the Practice

  • Authors:

  • Timothy C. Lethbridge;Janice Singer;Andrew Forward

  • Affiliations:

  • -;-;-

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Software
  • Year:
  • 2003

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Three large industrial studies explored how software engineers use and maintain documentation. The studies confirm the widely held belief that most software engineers don't update most software documentation in a timely manner. The only notable exception is documentation types that are highly structured and easy to maintain, such as test cases and inline comments. The studies also show that out-of-date documentation, especially that containing high-level abstractions, might remain useful.