Extracting Development Tasks to Navigate Software Documentation.
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| Title: | Extracting Development Tasks to Navigate Software Documentation. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Treude, Christoph1, Robillard, Martin P.2, Dagenais, Barthelemy3 |
| Source: | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Jun2015, Vol. 41 Issue 6, p565-581. 17p. |
| Subjects: | Software documentation, Knowledge management research, Computer software development, Natural language processing, Vocabulary |
| Abstract: | Knowledge management plays a central role in many software development organizations. While much of the important technical knowledge can be captured in documentation, there often exists a gap between the information needs of software developers and the documentation structure. To help developers navigate documentation, we developed a technique for automatically extracting tasks from software documentation by conceptualizing tasks as specific programming actions that have been described in the documentation. More than 70 percent of the tasks we extracted from the documentation of two projects were judged meaningful by at least one of two developers. We present TaskNavigator, a user interface for search queries that suggests tasks extracted with our technique in an auto-complete list along with concepts, code elements, and section headers. We conducted a field study in which six professional developers used TaskNavigator for two weeks as part of their ongoing work. We found search results identified through extracted tasks to be more helpful to developers than those found through concepts, code elements, and section headers. The results indicate that task descriptions can be effectively extracted from software documentation, and that they help bridge the gap between documentation structure and the information needs of software developers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
| Copyright of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering is the property of IEEE Computer Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: egs DbLabel: Engineering Source An: 103222700 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Extracting Development Tasks to Navigate Software Documentation. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Treude%2C+Christoph%22">Treude, Christoph</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Robillard%2C+Martin+P%2E%22">Robillard, Martin P.</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Dagenais%2C+Barthelemy%22">Dagenais, Barthelemy</searchLink><relatesTo>3</relatesTo> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22IEEE+Transactions+on+Software+Engineering%22">IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering</searchLink>. Jun2015, Vol. 41 Issue 6, p565-581. 17p. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Software+documentation%22">Software documentation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Knowledge+management+research%22">Knowledge management research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+software+development%22">Computer software development</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Natural+language+processing%22">Natural language processing</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Vocabulary%22">Vocabulary</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Knowledge management plays a central role in many software development organizations. While much of the important technical knowledge can be captured in documentation, there often exists a gap between the information needs of software developers and the documentation structure. To help developers navigate documentation, we developed a technique for automatically extracting tasks from software documentation by conceptualizing tasks as specific programming actions that have been described in the documentation. More than 70 percent of the tasks we extracted from the documentation of two projects were judged meaningful by at least one of two developers. We present TaskNavigator, a user interface for search queries that suggests tasks extracted with our technique in an auto-complete list along with concepts, code elements, and section headers. We conducted a field study in which six professional developers used TaskNavigator for two weeks as part of their ongoing work. We found search results identified through extracted tasks to be more helpful to developers than those found through concepts, code elements, and section headers. The results indicate that task descriptions can be effectively extracted from software documentation, and that they help bridge the gap between documentation structure and the information needs of software developers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering is the property of IEEE Computer Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1109/TSE.2014.2387172 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 17 StartPage: 565 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Software documentation Type: general – SubjectFull: Knowledge management research Type: general – SubjectFull: Computer software development Type: general – SubjectFull: Natural language processing Type: general – SubjectFull: Vocabulary Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Extracting Development Tasks to Navigate Software Documentation. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Treude, Christoph – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Robillard, Martin P. – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Dagenais, Barthelemy IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 06 Text: Jun2015 Type: published Y: 2015 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 00985589 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 41 – Type: issue Value: 6 Titles: – TitleFull: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Type: main |
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