Exploring the characteristics of issue-related behaviors in GitHub using visualization techniques

Zhifang Liao; Dayu He; Zhijie Chen; Xiaoping Fan; Yan Zhang; Shengzong Liu

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810295

Exploring the characteristics of issue-related behaviors in GitHub using visualization techniques

Zhifang Liao, Dayu He, Zhijie Chen, Xiaoping Fan^*, Yan Zhang, Shengzong Liu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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Abstract

Feedback from software users, such as bug reports, is vital in the management of software projects. In GitHub, the feedback is typically expressed as new issues. Through filing issue reports, users may help identify and fix bugs, document software code, and enhance software quality via feature requests. In this paper, we aim at investigating some characteristics of issues to facilitate issue management and software management. We investigate the important degrees of behaviors that are related to issues in popular projects to assess the importance of issues in GitHub and analyze the effectiveness of issue labeling for issue handling. Then, we explore the patterns of issue commits over time in popular projects based on visual analysis and obtain the following results: we find that the behaviors that are related to issues play important roles in the GitHub. We also find that the time distribution of issue commits follows a three-period development model, which approximately corresponds to the project life cycle. These results may provide a new knowledge about issues that can help managers manage and allocate project resources more effectively and even reduce software failures.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	24003-24015
Number of pages	13
Journal	IEEE Access
Volume	6
Early online date	28 Feb 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810295
Publication status	Published - 2018

Keywords

open-source software community
project development model,
visual analysis
issue commit
software management

Documents and Links

10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810295

Liao, Z. et al (2018) Exploring the characteristics of issue-related behaviors in GitHub using visualization techniques
(c) 2018 IEEE. Translations and content mining are permitted for academic research only. Personal use is also permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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Yan Zhang

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Cite this

Liao, Z., He, D., Chen, Z., Fan, X., Zhang, Y., & Liu, S. (2018). Exploring the characteristics of issue-related behaviors in GitHub using visualization techniques. IEEE Access, 6, 24003-24015. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810295

@article{759d3e6fa9d3483db1d29b968f223dca,

title = "Exploring the characteristics of issue-related behaviors in GitHub using visualization techniques",

abstract = "Feedback from software users, such as bug reports, is vital in the management of software projects. In GitHub, the feedback is typically expressed as new issues. Through filing issue reports, users may help identify and fix bugs, document software code, and enhance software quality via feature requests. In this paper, we aim at investigating some characteristics of issues to facilitate issue management and software management. We investigate the important degrees of behaviors that are related to issues in popular projects to assess the importance of issues in GitHub and analyze the effectiveness of issue labeling for issue handling. Then, we explore the patterns of issue commits over time in popular projects based on visual analysis and obtain the following results: we find that the behaviors that are related to issues play important roles in the GitHub. We also find that the time distribution of issue commits follows a three-period development model, which approximately corresponds to the project life cycle. These results may provide a new knowledge about issues that can help managers manage and allocate project resources more effectively and even reduce software failures.",

keywords = "open-source software community, project development model,, visual analysis, issue commit, software management",

author = "Zhifang Liao and Dayu He and Zhijie Chen and Xiaoping Fan and Yan Zhang and Shengzong Liu",

note = "Acceptance from VoR OA article however no CC licence on article (see p1 of VoR). Applied 'no exception' as article doesn't meet our definition for Gold exception. ET 14/1/20 ET",

year = "2018",

doi = "10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810295",

language = "English",

volume = "6",

pages = "24003--24015",

journal = "IEEE Access",

issn = "2169-3536",

publisher = "IEEE",

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TY - JOUR

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AU - Liao, Zhifang

AU - He, Dayu

AU - Chen, Zhijie

AU - Fan, Xiaoping

AU - Zhang, Yan

AU - Liu, Shengzong

N1 - Acceptance from VoR OA article however no CC licence on article (see p1 of VoR). Applied 'no exception' as article doesn't meet our definition for Gold exception. ET 14/1/20 ET

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Feedback from software users, such as bug reports, is vital in the management of software projects. In GitHub, the feedback is typically expressed as new issues. Through filing issue reports, users may help identify and fix bugs, document software code, and enhance software quality via feature requests. In this paper, we aim at investigating some characteristics of issues to facilitate issue management and software management. We investigate the important degrees of behaviors that are related to issues in popular projects to assess the importance of issues in GitHub and analyze the effectiveness of issue labeling for issue handling. Then, we explore the patterns of issue commits over time in popular projects based on visual analysis and obtain the following results: we find that the behaviors that are related to issues play important roles in the GitHub. We also find that the time distribution of issue commits follows a three-period development model, which approximately corresponds to the project life cycle. These results may provide a new knowledge about issues that can help managers manage and allocate project resources more effectively and even reduce software failures.

AB - Feedback from software users, such as bug reports, is vital in the management of software projects. In GitHub, the feedback is typically expressed as new issues. Through filing issue reports, users may help identify and fix bugs, document software code, and enhance software quality via feature requests. In this paper, we aim at investigating some characteristics of issues to facilitate issue management and software management. We investigate the important degrees of behaviors that are related to issues in popular projects to assess the importance of issues in GitHub and analyze the effectiveness of issue labeling for issue handling. Then, we explore the patterns of issue commits over time in popular projects based on visual analysis and obtain the following results: we find that the behaviors that are related to issues play important roles in the GitHub. We also find that the time distribution of issue commits follows a three-period development model, which approximately corresponds to the project life cycle. These results may provide a new knowledge about issues that can help managers manage and allocate project resources more effectively and even reduce software failures.

KW - open-source software community

KW - project development model,

KW - visual analysis

KW - issue commit

KW - software management

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DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810295

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