Understanding Software Maintenance Tools: Some Empirical Research
Timothy C. Lethbridge, Janice Singer · 1997
In this position paper we discuss research into tools for software maintenance, where tools include everything from large scale integrated CASE products down to simple one-function commands or features. The objective of this research is to learn more about software engineers' work with and needs for tools, so that they can become more productive. We discuss several categories of questions to be asked in this research, and various methods for gathering data. We present some data from our research to date which indicates, among other things the need for efficient software exploration mechanisms. Finally we propose some directions for collaborative research. Keywords: Software maintenance tools, work practices, studying software engineers 1. The software maintenance topic and problem we are addressing A key part of our research is to study tools to help software engineers (SEs) perform maintenance. In this paper, we discuss the problem of understanding what tools and tool features are...