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IR in Software Traceability: From a Bird's Eye View

Borg, Markus LU and Runeson, Per LU orcid (2013) 7th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
Abstract
Several researchers have proposed creating after-the-fact structure among software artifacts using trace recovery based on Information Retrieval (IR). Due to significant variation points in previous studies, results are not easily aggregated. Aim. We aim at an overview picture of the outcome of previous evaluations. Method. Based on a systematic mapping study, we perform a synthesis of published research.

Results. Our synthesis shows that there are no empirical evidence that any IR model outperforms another model consistently. We also display a strong dependency between the Precision and Recall (P-R) values and the input datasets. Finally, our mapping of P-R values on the possible output space highlights the difficulty of... (More)
Several researchers have proposed creating after-the-fact structure among software artifacts using trace recovery based on Information Retrieval (IR). Due to significant variation points in previous studies, results are not easily aggregated. Aim. We aim at an overview picture of the outcome of previous evaluations. Method. Based on a systematic mapping study, we perform a synthesis of published research.

Results. Our synthesis shows that there are no empirical evidence that any IR model outperforms another model consistently. We also display a strong dependency between the Precision and Recall (P-R) values and the input datasets. Finally, our mapping of P-R values on the possible output space highlights the difficulty of recovering accurate trace links using naïve cut-off strategies. Conclusion. Based on our findings, we stress the need for empirical evaluations beyond the basic P-'race'. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
empirical software engineering, software traceability, information retrieval, secondary study
host publication
Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
pages
4 pages
conference name
7th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
conference location
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
conference dates
2013-10-10
external identifiers
  • scopus:84893255084
project
Embedded Applications Software Engineering
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b6baf2eb-91d7-46d4-a7af-3b4853bbe2c0 (old id 4091312)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:31:30
date last changed
2022-03-16 03:31:19
@inproceedings{b6baf2eb-91d7-46d4-a7af-3b4853bbe2c0,
  abstract     = {{Several researchers have proposed creating after-the-fact structure among software artifacts using trace recovery based on Information Retrieval (IR). Due to significant variation points in previous studies, results are not easily aggregated. Aim. We aim at an overview picture of the outcome of previous evaluations. Method. Based on a systematic mapping study, we perform a synthesis of published research.<br/><br>
Results. Our synthesis shows that there are no empirical evidence that any IR model outperforms another model consistently. We also display a strong dependency between the Precision and Recall (P-R) values and the input datasets. Finally, our mapping of P-R values on the possible output space highlights the difficulty of recovering accurate trace links using naïve cut-off strategies. Conclusion. Based on our findings, we stress the need for empirical evaluations beyond the basic P-'race'.}},
  author       = {{Borg, Markus and Runeson, Per}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement}},
  keywords     = {{empirical software engineering; software traceability; information retrieval; secondary study}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{IR in Software Traceability: From a Bird's Eye View}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/6380240/4091779.pdf}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}