Behind the Hot Fix: Demystifying Hot Fixing Industrial Practices at Zühlke and Beyond
Rushing a hot fix and having it fail can severely damage a software company’s reputation, impacting user satisfaction and future business opportunities. Ensuring best practices for emergency bug handling is critical, yet the process remains elusive in the industry. We are the first to conduct a study to gain insights on hot fixing industrial practices. We surveyed 24 employees of Zühlke, a mid-sized IT company specializing in providing software engineering services to clients from different domains. We also surveyed 136 software practitioners from a wide range of companies, roles, and geographical areas through an online questionnaire, most having over 10 years of professional experience. Among others, we found that terminology around hot fixing is inconsistent; 56.7% of questionnaire participants stated automated tooling exists for hot fix deployment, but only 25% responded that some tooling is available for hot fix generation; Zühlke employees reported significantly faster hot fix resolution times, attributed to their strong emphasis on agile practices, averaging hours vs. days in other companies. Based on our study’s results we offer key recommendations for both software engineering researchers and industry practitioners.
Mon 23 JunDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
14:00 - 15:30 | BugsResearch Papers / Industry Papers / Ideas, Visions and Reflections at Pirsenteret 150 Chair(s): Ying Zou Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario | ||
14:00 20mTalk | Dissecting Real-World Cross-Language Bugs Research Papers DOI | ||
14:20 20mTalk | Towards Understanding Fine-Grained Programming Mistakes and Fixing Patterns in Data Science Research Papers Weihao Chen Purdue University, Jia Lin Cheoh Purdue University, Manthan Keim Purdue University, Sabine Brunswicker Purdue University, Tianyi Zhang Purdue University DOI | ||
14:40 20mTalk | Error Delayed is Not Error Handled: Understanding and Fixing Propagated Error-Handling Bugs Research Papers Haoran Liu National University of Defense Technology, Shanshan Li National University of Defense Technology, Zhouyang Jia National University of Defense Technology, Yuanliang Zhang National University of Defense Technology, Linxiao Bai National University of Defense Technology, Si Zheng National University of Defense Technology, Xiaoguang Mao National University of Defense Technology, Liao Xiangke National University of Defense Technology DOI | ||
15:00 10mTalk | “Silent Is Not Actually Silent”: An Investigation of Toxicity on Bug Report Discussion Ideas, Visions and Reflections Mia Mohammad Imran Missouri University of Science and Technology, Jaydeb Sarker University of Nebraska at Omaha Pre-print | ||
15:10 20mTalk | Behind the Hot Fix: Demystifying Hot Fixing Industrial Practices at Zühlke and Beyond Industry Papers Carol Hanna University College London, David Elliman Zuhlke Engineering Ltd, Wolfgang Emmerich Zuhlke Engineering Ltd, Federica Sarro University College London, Justyna Petke University College London | ||
This room is located outside Clarion Hotel
This room is located in the Pirsenteret (The Pier Center) convention center. It is just outside the hotel, on the back, towards the fjord.
You should be able to go through the emergency exit at Clarion, just on the side of the Cosmos 3 wing, which will be bring you close to Pirsenteret.
The entrance to the center is from here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dU3qH6kAimXGBNHe7
Once inside, go all straight and you will find signage to reach the room. The room is known as room 150 inside the center.