Visualizing software changes

Author

Eick, Stephen G. ; Graves, Todd L. ; Karr, Alan F. ; Mockus, Audris ; Schuster, Paul

Author_Institution

Visual Insights, Naperville, IL, USA

Volume

28

Issue

4

fYear

2002

fDate

4/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

396

Lastpage

412

Abstract

A key problem in software engineering is changing the code. We present a sequence of visualizations and visual metaphors designed to help engineers understand and manage the software change process. The principal metaphors are matrix views, cityscapes, bar and pie charts, data sheets and networks. Linked by selection mechanisms, multiple views are combined to form perspectives that both enable discovery of high-level structure in software change data and allow effective access to details of those data. Use of the views and perspectives is illustrated in two important contexts: understanding software change by exploration of software change data and management of software development. Our approach complements existing visualizations of software structure and software execution

Keywords

program visualisation; software development management; software maintenance; systems re-engineering; bar charts; cityscapes; code structure; data sheets; matrix views; multiple views; pie charts; reengineering; software change process management; software change visualization; software development management; software engineering; software maintenance; visual metaphors; Visualization;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TSE.2002.995435

Filename

995435