Mining Cause-Effect-Chains from Version Histories (-1)

Software reliability is determined by software changes. How do these changes relate to each other? By analyzing the impacted method definitions and usages, we determine dependencies between changes, resulting in a change genealogy that captures how earlier changes enable and cause later ones. Model checking this genealogy reveals temporal process patterns that encode key features of the software process: “Whenever class A is changed, its test case is later updated as well.” Such patterns can be validated automatically: In an evaluation of four open source histories, our prototype would recommend pending activities with a precision of 60– 72%. Keywords-Distribution; Maintenance; Enhancement; Life cycle; Software process models