Categorizing and Visualizing Issue Tickets to Better Understand the Features Implemented in Existing Software Systems

Ryo Ishizuka, Hironori Washizaki, Yoshiaki Fukazawa, Shinobu Saito, Saori Ouji

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Acquiring knowledge and context of the ongoing project is one of the most challenging issues for new project members. New project members need to comprehend the contents of features already implemented in software systems. However, most software documents (e.g., flow chart and data-model) were initially created and not updated. Herein we focus on tickets issued during the project period because they are created based on stakeholders' requirements as a project evolves. We propose a novel approach to categorize and visualize tickets to better understand the features implemented in the existing software systems. Specifically, tickets are grouped by a clustering method and the number of clusters (i.e., ticket categories) is automatically estimated. Then the ticket categories are visualized by (i) creating a heatmap of the tickets lifetimes, (ii) extracting keywords of the ticket categories, and (iii) analyzing the relationships between ticket categories. We applied our approach to an NTT software development project. Additionally, we interviewed the project members and external experts to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach. Our approach helps comprehend the features of the software system.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2019 10th International Workshop on Empirical Software Engineering in Practice, IWESEP 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages25-30
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781728155906
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Dec
Event10th International Workshop on Empirical Software Engineering in Practice, IWESEP 2019 - Tokyo, Japan
Duration: 2019 Dec 132019 Dec 14

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2019 10th International Workshop on Empirical Software Engineering in Practice, IWESEP 2019

Conference

Conference10th International Workshop on Empirical Software Engineering in Practice, IWESEP 2019
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTokyo
Period19/12/1319/12/14

Keywords

  • interviewing
  • issue ticket
  • machine learning
  • reverse engineering
  • software comprehension
  • text mining

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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