Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough: Analyzing Software Repositories with Longitudinal Metrics

Nicholas Synovic; Matt Hyattt; Rohan Sethi; Sohini Thota; Shilpika; Allan J. Miller; Wenxin Jiang; Emmanuel S. Amobi; Austin Pinderski; Konstantin Läufer; Nicholas J Hayward; Neil Klingensmith; James C Davis; George K Thiruvathukal

doi:10.1145/3551349.3559517

Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough: Analyzing Software Repositories with Longitudinal Metrics

Nicholas Synovic, Matt Hyattt, Rohan Sethi, Sohini Thota, Shilpika, Allan J. Miller, Wenxin Jiang, Emmanuel S. Amobi, Austin Pinderski, Konstantin Läufer, Nicholas J Hayward, Neil Klingensmith, James C Davis, George K Thiruvathukal

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Software metrics capture information about software development processes and products. These metrics support decision-making, e.g., in team management or dependency selection. However, existing metrics tools measure only a snapshot of a software project. Little attention has been given to enabling engineers to reason about metric trends over time -- longitudinal metrics that give insight about process, not just product. In this work, we present PRiME (PRocess MEtrics), a tool for computing and visualizing process metrics. The currently-supported metrics include productivity, issue density, issue spoilage, and bus factor. We illustrate the value of longitudinal data and conclude with a research agenda. The tool's demo video can be watched at this https URL . The source code can be found at this https URL .

Original language	American English
Journal	Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3551349.3559517
State	Published - Jan 5 2023

Keywords

mining software repositories
software metrics
GitHub
defect density
issue spoilage
bus factor

Disciplines

Computer Sciences
Software Engineering

Access to Document

10.1145/3551349.3559517License: Unspecified

Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough Analyzing Software RepositoriesFinal published version, 785 KBLicense: Unspecified

https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.11767

Cite this

Synovic, N., Hyattt, M., Sethi, R., Thota, S., Shilpika, Miller, A. J., Jiang, W., Amobi, E. S., Pinderski, A., Läufer, K., Hayward, N. J., Klingensmith, N., Davis, J. C., & Thiruvathukal, G. K. (2023). Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough: Analyzing Software Repositories with Longitudinal Metrics. Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works. https://doi.org/10.1145/3551349.3559517

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abstract = " Software metrics capture information about software development processes and products. These metrics support decision-making, e.g., in team management or dependency selection. However, existing metrics tools measure only a snapshot of a software project. Little attention has been given to enabling engineers to reason about metric trends over time -- longitudinal metrics that give insight about process, not just product. In this work, we present PRiME (PRocess MEtrics), a tool for computing and visualizing process metrics. The currently-supported metrics include productivity, issue density, issue spoilage, and bus factor. We illustrate the value of longitudinal data and conclude with a research agenda. The tool's demo video can be watched at this https URL . The source code can be found at this https URL .",

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author = "Nicholas Synovic and Matt Hyattt and Rohan Sethi and Sohini Thota and Shilpika and Miller, \{Allan J.\} and Wenxin Jiang and Amobi, \{Emmanuel S.\} and Austin Pinderski and Konstantin L{\"a}ufer and Hayward, \{Nicholas J\} and Neil Klingensmith and Davis, \{James C\} and Thiruvathukal, \{George K\}",

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doi = "10.1145/3551349.3559517",

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AU - Synovic, Nicholas

AU - Hyattt, Matt

AU - Sethi, Rohan

AU - Thota, Sohini

AU - Shilpika, null

AU - Miller, Allan J.

AU - Jiang, Wenxin

AU - Amobi, Emmanuel S.

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AU - Hayward, Nicholas J

AU - Klingensmith, Neil

AU - Davis, James C

AU - Thiruvathukal, George K

N1 - Nicholas Synovic, Matt Hyatt, Rohan Sethi, Sohini Thota, Shilpika, Allan J. Miller, Wenxin Jiang, Emmanuel S. Amobi, Austin Pinderski, Konstantin Läufer, Nicholas J. Hayward, Neil Klingensmith, James C. Davis, George K. Thiruvathukal, "Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough: Analyzing Software Repositories with Longitudinal Metrics", Proceedings of Automated Software Engineering 2022.

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AB - Software metrics capture information about software development processes and products. These metrics support decision-making, e.g., in team management or dependency selection. However, existing metrics tools measure only a snapshot of a software project. Little attention has been given to enabling engineers to reason about metric trends over time -- longitudinal metrics that give insight about process, not just product. In this work, we present PRiME (PRocess MEtrics), a tool for computing and visualizing process metrics. The currently-supported metrics include productivity, issue density, issue spoilage, and bus factor. We illustrate the value of longitudinal data and conclude with a research agenda. The tool's demo video can be watched at this https URL . The source code can be found at this https URL .

KW - mining software repositories

KW - software metrics

KW - GitHub

KW - defect density

KW - issue spoilage

KW - bus factor

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JO - Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

JF - Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

ER -

Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough: Analyzing Software Repositories with Longitudinal Metrics

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