CAREER: Information Sources for Software Maintenance

University Of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal 9984047 Seaman, Carolyn B. University of Maryland Baltimore County CAREER: Information Sources for Software Maintenance This project consists of a series of empirical studies to understand how software maintainers gain information about the systems being maintained, with the goal of improving the quality and productivity of maintenance processes in general. It begins with an exploratory investigation of what factors need to be considered, including appropriate measures of effectiveness, an operational definition of information source, and identification of other relevant variables. Then current maintenance practices are studied to determine what sources are efficient, effective, and available in different situations. Finally, based on the results of the exploratory work, improvements to maintenance practice are proposed and empirically validated. The study designs incorporate a wide variety of research methods in order to triangulate findings and trade off different threats to validity. Industrial participation is crucial, not only to obtain valid and useful results, but also to ensure that the significant long-term potential of this work is realized. This work also includes an educational component consisting of two major activities: development of a software engineering course concentrating on the latter stages of the lifecycle (emphasizing maintenance), and extensive involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in software engineering research.