Faster issue resolution with higher technical quality of software

Abstract

We performed an empirical study of the relation between technical quality of software products and the issue resolution performance of their maintainers. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that ratings for source code maintainability, as employed by the Software Improvement Group (SIG) quality model, are correlated with ratings for issue resolution speed. We tested the hypothesis for issues of type defect and of type enhancement. This study revealed that all but one of the metrics of the SIG quality model show a significant positive correlation with the resolution speed of defects, enhancements, or both.

Test Code Quality and Its Relation to Issue Handling Performance

“…The individual resolution times of the defects need to be aggregated in a measurement that represents the defect resolution speed. The distribution of defect resolution times resembles a power-law-like distribution as illustrated by Bijlsma et al [15]. In their study, Bijlsma et al observed that the resolution times of most of the defects were at most four weeks, but at the same time there were defects with resolution times of more than six months.…”

“…Starting from the last two, throughput and productivity are measured as shown in Section 2.2.3. To derive the resolution time of a defect, we rely on the approach presented in [15]. The summary of the approach follows.…”

“…This way defect resolution times can be converted into a rating that reflects resolution speed. The thresholds for the risk categories and the quality profiles that are used in this study are the ones that were acquired by the calibration that was performed in [15]. In [15] Bijlsma et al used 10 projects (e.g., webkit, tomcat and hibernate) to perform this calibration.…”

“…In addition, further indicators of issue handling performance, such as throughput and productivity, can be derived by studying ITS data as shown in [14]. Similar to [15], in this paper we measure issue handling performance as the speed of fixing issues.…”

Visualization of Defect Inflow and Resolution Cycles: Before, During and After Transfer

“…These statistics highlight the costly nature of, and the importance of sustaining levels of efficiency during, maintenance activities. In addition, monitoring and improving the speed of maintenance work, e.g., shorter defect resolution cycle times, can help with controlling and improving software quality [3]. Thus it is important to understand the impact that project settings or strategies have on defect resolution cycles, and hence maintenance work efficiency so as to make informed decisions for future releases.…”