Industrial experience with an integrated code comprehension model

Maintenance frequently consumes more resources than new software development. A major portion of the maintenance effort is spent trying to understand existing software. If more can be learnt about how programmers understand code successfully, better tools to support this understanding process can be built. This contributes to higher quality and improved efficiency of maintenance tasks. Audio-taped ‘think aloud’ reports were used to investigate an integrated code comprehension model during a variety of industrial maintenance activities. The tapes were analysed for information needs during maintenance activities and used to derive useful tool capabilities.

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