TY - GEN
T1 - Considerations and Pitfalls in Controlled Experiments on Code Comprehension
AU - Feitelson, Dror G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 IEEE.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Understanding program code is a complicated endeavor. As such, myriad different factors can influence the outcome. Investigations of program comprehension, and in particular those using controlled experiments, have to take these factors into account. In order to promote the development and use of sound experimental methodology, we discuss potential problems with regard to the experimental subjects, the code they work on, the tasks they are asked to perform, and the metrics for their performance.
AB - Understanding program code is a complicated endeavor. As such, myriad different factors can influence the outcome. Investigations of program comprehension, and in particular those using controlled experiments, have to take these factors into account. In order to promote the development and use of sound experimental methodology, we discuss potential problems with regard to the experimental subjects, the code they work on, the tasks they are asked to perform, and the metrics for their performance.
KW - Code comprehension
KW - experimental methodology
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85113240105
U2 - 10.1109/ICPC52881.2021.00019
DO - 10.1109/ICPC52881.2021.00019
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension
SP - 106
EP - 117
BT - Proceedings - 2021 IEEE/ACM 29th International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC 2021
PB - IEEE Computer Society
T2 - 29th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC 2021
Y2 - 22 May 2021 through 30 May 2021
ER -