research-article

Feature Location Using Probabilistic Ranking of Methods Based on Execution Scenarios and Information Retrieval

Authors:

Denys Poshyvanyk,

Yann-Gael Gueheneuc,

Andrian Marcus,

Giuliano Antoniol,

Vaclav RajlichAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume 33, Issue 6

Pages 420 - 432

https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2007.1016

Published: 01 June 2007 Publication History

Abstract

This paper recasts the problem of feature location in source code as a decision-making problem in the presence of uncertainty. The solution to the problem is formulated as a combination of the opinions of different experts. The experts in this work are two existing techniques for feature location: a scenario-based probabilistic ranking of events and an information-retrieval-based technique that uses Latent Semantic Indexing. The combination of these two experts is empirically evaluated through several case studies, which use the source code of the Mozilla Web browser and the Eclipse integrated development environment. The results show that the combination of experts significantly improves the effectiveness of feature location as compared to each of the experts used independently.

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Index Terms

Feature Location Using Probabilistic Ranking of Methods Based on Execution Scenarios and Information Retrieval

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cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Volume 33, Issue 6

June 2007

64 pages

ISSN:0098-5589

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Copyright © 2007.

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IEEE Press

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Published: 01 June 2007

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