Cited by 76Software Engineering ResearchSoftware Testing and Debugging TechniquesSoftware Engineering Techniques and Practices

Using information scent to model the dynamic foraging behavior of programmers in maintenance tasks

Lawrance, Joseph, Bellamy, Rachel, Burnett, Margaret, Rector, Kyle·2008·Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Abstract

In recent years, the software engineering community has begun to study program navigation and tools to support it. Some of these navigation tools are very useful, but they lack a theoretical basis that could reduce the need for ad hoc tool building approaches by explaining what is fundamentally necessary in such tools. In this paper, we present PFIS (Programmer Flow by Information Scent), a model and algorithm of programmer navigation during software maintenance. We also describe an experimental study of expert programmers debugging real bugs described in real bug reports for a real Java application. We found that PFIS' performance was close to aggregated human decisions as to where to navigate, and was significantly better than individual programmers' decisions.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1145/1357054.1357261

Cites

29 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lawrance, J., Bellamy, R., Burnett, M., & Rector, K.
Affiliations
  • Oregon State University (US)
  • IBM (United States) (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2008-04-06
Pages
1323-1332
OpenAlex
W2160570190
Cited by
76
References
29
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
FWCI
3.93
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Science Foundation
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
Keywords
information scent, software maintenance, foraging behavior, debugging, bug reports, Java programs, expert programmers

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review