TY - GEN
T1 - Impact of Switching Bug Trackers
T2 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019
AU - Zimmermann, Theo
AU - Casanueva Artis, Annali
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 IEEE.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - For most software projects, the bug tracker is an essential tool. In open source development, this tool plays an even more central role as it is generally open to all users, who are encouraged to test the software and report bugs. Previous studies have highlighted the act of reporting a bug as a first step leading a user to become an active contributor. The impact of the bug reporting environment on the bug tracking activity is difficult to assess because of the lack of comparison points. In this paper, we take advantage of the switch, from Bugzilla to GitHub, of the bug tracker of Coq, a medium-sized open source project, to evaluate and interpret the impact that such a change can have. We first report on the switch itself, including the migration of preexisting issues. Then we analyze data from before and after the switch using a regression discontinuity design, an econometric methodology imported from quantitative policy analysis. We complete this quantitative analysis with qualitative data from interviews with developers. We show that the switch induces an increase in bug reporting, particularly from principal developers themselves, and more generally an increased engagement with the bug tracking platform, with more comments by developers and also more external commentators.
AB - For most software projects, the bug tracker is an essential tool. In open source development, this tool plays an even more central role as it is generally open to all users, who are encouraged to test the software and report bugs. Previous studies have highlighted the act of reporting a bug as a first step leading a user to become an active contributor. The impact of the bug reporting environment on the bug tracking activity is difficult to assess because of the lack of comparison points. In this paper, we take advantage of the switch, from Bugzilla to GitHub, of the bug tracker of Coq, a medium-sized open source project, to evaluate and interpret the impact that such a change can have. We first report on the switch itself, including the migration of preexisting issues. Then we analyze data from before and after the switch using a regression discontinuity design, an econometric methodology imported from quantitative policy analysis. We complete this quantitative analysis with qualitative data from interviews with developers. We show that the switch induces an increase in bug reporting, particularly from principal developers themselves, and more generally an increased engagement with the bug tracking platform, with more comments by developers and also more external commentators.
KW - Bugzilla
KW - GitHub
KW - RDD
KW - bug report
KW - bug tracker
KW - data mining
KW - interviews
KW - issue
KW - migration
KW - open source
KW - regression discontinuity design
KW - switch
U2 - 10.1109/ICSME.2019.00011
DO - 10.1109/ICSME.2019.00011
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85077213555
T3 - Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019
SP - 13
EP - 23
BT - Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 30 September 2019 through 4 October 2019
ER -