Human Factors in the Study of Automatic Software Repair: Future Directions for Research with Industry

Abstract

Automatic software repair represents a significant development in software engineering, promising considerable potential change to the working procedures and practices of software engineers. Technical advances have been the focus of many recent publications. However, there has not been an equivalent growth of studies of human factors within automatic software repair. This position paper presents the case for increased research in this area and suggests three key focuses and approaches for a future research agenda. All three of these enable industry-based software engineers not just to provide feedback on automatic software repair tools but to participate in shaping these technologies so that they meet developer and industry needs.