Developer Micro Interaction Metrics for Software Defect Prediction
Taek Lee, Jaechang Nam, DongGyun Han, Sunghun Kim, Hoh Peter In · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · 2016
To facilitate software quality assurance, defect prediction metrics, such as source code metrics, change churns, and the number of previous defects, have been actively studied. Despite the common understanding that developer behavioral interaction patterns can affect software quality, these widely used defect prediction metrics do not consider developer behavior. We therefore propose micro interaction metrics (MIMs), which are metrics that leverage developer interaction information. The developer interactions, such as file editing and browsing events in task sessions, are captured and stored as information by Mylyn, an Eclipse plug-in. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that MIMs significantly improve overall defect prediction accuracy when combined with existing software measures, perform well in a cost-effective manner, and provide intuitive feedback that enables developers to recognize their own inefficient behaviors during software development.