Computer Science

Computer Science ›› 2023, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (12): 14-23.doi: 10.11896/jsjkx.230300211

• Computer Software • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Examining the Quality of Bug Report Titles:An Empirical Study

XU Yong, SUN Longfei, ZHANGTANG Haoran, MAO Xinjun   

  1. College of Computer Science and Technology,National University of Defense Technology,Changsha 410073,China
    Hunan Key Laboratory of Software Engineering for Complex Systems,Changsha 410073,China
  • Received:2023-03-28 Revised:2023-07-10 Online:2023-12-15 Published:2023-12-07
  • About author:XU Yong,born in 1998,postgraduate,is a student member of China Computer Federation.His main research interest is AI for software engineering.
    MAO Xinjun,born in 1970,Ph.D,professor,is a member of China Computer Federation.His main research interests include software engineering,intelligent agent theory and technology,adaptive and self-organizing systems,etc.
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(62172426) and Key Research Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology(2018YFB1004202).

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Abstract: The title of a software bug serves as a concise summary of the bug,which can help developers swiftly comprehend the bug and facilitate effective software bug management.Current software development practices reveal that the quality of bug titles varies considerably,characterized by issues such as verbosity,obscurity,and a lack of crucial information,ultimately impacting the efficiency of software bug management.To this end,this study attempt to understand which factors influence the quality of bug title and identify the current quality status.We examine 190 online documents to elicit the quality requirements of developers for bug title,construct a bug title quality measurement model using the GQM paradigm,and analyze the prevalence of quality issues in 1 804 bug titles from five open-source projects on GitHub.The findings indicate that developers primarily focus on four aspects of quality for bug titles,i.e.conciseness(110,58%),clarity(65,34%),description of the core idea of the bug(157,83%),and accurate descriptions(67,35%).Approximately 70% of bug titles exhibit varying degrees of quality issues,with a lack of crucial information and inaccurate descriptions being the most common issues.Specifically,42% of bug titles lack information expected by developers,and 24% require being rewritten accurately.The study can offer guidance for reporters seeking to submit high-quality bug titles.

Key words: Title of bug report, Measurement model, Distribution of quality issues, Theme analysis, Software bug management

CLC Number: 

  • TP311
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