Decoding the Issue Resolution Process In Practice via Issue Report Analysis: A Case Study of Firefox
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Effectively managing and resolving software issues is critical for maintaining and evolving software systems. Development teams often rely on issue trackers and issue reports to track and manage the work needed during issue resolution, ranging from issue reproduction and analysis to solution design, implementation, verification, and deployment. Despite the issue resolution process being generally known in the software engineering community as a sequential list of activities, it is unknown how developers implement this process in practice and how they discuss it in issue reports. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the issue resolution process implemented in practice by analyzing the issue reports of Mozilla Firefox. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the discussions found in 356 Firefox issue reports, to identify the sequences of stages that developers go through to address various software problems. We analyzed the sequences to identify the overall resolution process at Firefox and derived a catalog of 47 patterns that represent instances of the process. We analyzed the process and patterns across multiple dimensions, including pattern complexity, issue report types, problem categories, and issue resolution times, resulting in various insights about Mozilla’s issue resolution process. We discuss these findings and their implications for different stakeholders on how to better assess and improve the issue resolution process.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Fri 2 MayDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
14:00 - 15:30 | |||
14:00 15mTalk | Decoding the Issue Resolution Process In Practice via Issue Report Analysis: A Case Study of Firefox Research Track | ||
14:15 15mTalk | Preserving Privacy in Software Composition Analysis: A Study of Technical Solutions and Enhancements Research Track Huaijin Wang Ohio State University, Zhibo Liu The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Yanbo Dai The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Shuai Wang Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Qiyi Tang Tencent Security Keen Lab, Sen Nie Tencent Security Keen Lab, Shi Wu Tencent Security Keen Lab | ||
14:30 15mTalk | UML is Back. Or is it? Investigating the Past, Present, and Future of UML in Open Source Software Research Track Joseph Romeo Software Institute - USI, Lugano, Switzerland, Marco Raglianti Software Institute - USI, Lugano, Csaba Nagy , Michele Lanza Software Institute - USI, Lugano | ||
14:45 15mTalk | Understanding the Response to Open-Source Dependency Abandonment in the npm EcosystemAward Winner Research Track Courtney Miller Carnegie Mellon University, Mahmoud Jahanshahi Research Assistant, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Audris Mockus The University of Tennessee, Bogdan Vasilescu Carnegie Mellon University, Christian Kästner Carnegie Mellon University | ||
15:00 15mTalk | Understanding Compiler Bugs in Real Development Research Track Hao Zhong Shanghai Jiao Tong University | ||
15:15 15mTalk | Studying Programmers Without Programming: Investigating Expertise Using Resting State fMRI Research Track Zachary Karas Vanderbilt University, Benjamin Gold Vanderbilt University, Violet Zhou University of Michigan, Noah Reardon University of Michigan, Thad Polk University of Michigan, Catie Chang Vanderbilt University, Yu Huang Vanderbilt University |