Toward Understanding Task Complexity in Maintenance-Based Studies of Programming Tools
Patrick Rein, Tom Beckmann, Toni Mattis, Robert Hirschfeld · 2022
Researchers conducting studies on programming tools often make use of maintenance tasks. The complexity of these tasks can influence the behavior of participants significantly. At the same time, the complexity of tasks is difficult to pinpoint due to the many sources of complexity for maintenance tasks. As a result, researchers may struggle to deliberately decide in which regard their tasks should be complex and in which regard they should be simple.