Understanding Developers' Discussions and Perceptions on Non-Functional Requirements: The Case of the Spring Ecosystem
Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) should be defined in the early stages of the software development process, driving developers to make important design decisions. Neglecting NFRs may lead developers to create systems that are difficult to maintain and do not meet user expectations. Despite its importance, the discussion of NFRs is often ad-hoc and scattered through multiple sources, limiting developers’ awareness of NFRs. In that scenario, Pull Request (PR) discussions can be used, thus providing a centralized platform for comprehensive NFR discussions. However, existing studies do not explore this important source of information in open-source software development, which developers widely use to discuss software requirements. In this study, we report an investigation of NFR discussions available in PR of repositories of the Spring ecosystem. We collected, manually curated, and analyzed PR discussions addressing four categories of NFR: maintainability, security, performance, and robustness. We found that more than 77% of the discussions related to NFRs are triggered in the PR title and/or description, indicating that developers are often provided with sufficient information straightway. We observed that discussions surrounding these PRs tend to address the introduction of a code change or explain some anomaly regarding a particular NFR. To gain more knowledge of NFR discussions, we investigated developers involved in discussions and fixing NFR issues. For that, we performed an in-depth analysis of \devsAnalyzed developers that stood out in collaborating with the mapped PRs. We discovered that the developers who discuss NFRs often open and review most PRs related to NFRs. To complement this analysis, we applied a survey with \devsSurvey to gather their perceptions on NFR discussions. By observing how developers approach NFRs and participate in discussions, we documented the best practices and strategies newcomers can use to address NFRs effectively. Through the characterization of NFR discussions, we aim to pave the way for developing automated tools to identify NFRs better. Finally, we provide a curated dataset of 1,533 PR discussions classified with NFR presence.
Wed 17 JulDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
14:00 - 15:30 | Processes, Requirements, and ArchitectureIndustry Papers / Journal First / Research Papers / Demonstrations at Acerola Chair(s): Annibale Panichella Delft University of Technology | ||
14:00 18mTalk | On the Usefulness of Automatically Generated Microservice Architectures Journal First Luiz Carvalho Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thelma Elita Colanzi State University of Maringa, Brazil, Wesley Assunção North Carolina State University, Alessandro Garcia Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Juliana Alves Pereira Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Marcos Kalinowski Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rafael de Mello Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Maria Julia de Lima Tecgraf Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Carlos Lucena Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | ||
14:18 18mTalk | An LGPD Compliance Inspection Checklist to Assess IoT Solutions Industry Papers Ivonildo Pereira Gomes Neto Federal University of Pernambuco, João Mendes Federal University of Maranhão, Waldemar Pires Ferreira Neto Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, Luis Jorge Enrique Rivero Cabrejos Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil, Davi Viana Federal University of Maranhão, Sérgio Soares Universidade Federal de Pernambuco | ||
14:36 18mTalk | Automated Smell Detection and Recommendation in Natural Language Requirements Journal First Alvaro Veizaga University of Luxembourg, Seung Yeob Shin University of Luxembourg, Lionel Briand University of Ottawa, Canada; Lero centre, University of Limerick, Ireland | ||
14:54 9mTalk | Supporting Early Architectural Decision-Making Through Tradeoff Analysis: A Study with Volvo Cars Industry Papers Karl Öqvist Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Jacob Messinger Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Rebekka Wohlrab Chalmers University of Technology | ||
15:03 9mTalk | MicroKarta: Visualising Microservice Architectures Demonstrations Oscar Manglaras University of Adelaide, Alex Farkas University of Adelaide, Peter Fule Swordfish Computing, Christoph Treude Singapore Management University, Markus Wagner Monash University, Australia | ||
15:12 18mTalk | Understanding Developers' Discussions and Perceptions on Non-Functional Requirements: The Case of the Spring Ecosystem Research Papers Anderson Oliveira Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), João Lucas Correia Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Wesley Assunção North Carolina State University, Juliana Alves Pereira Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rafael de Mello Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Daniel Coutinho Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Caio Barbosa Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Paulo Vítor C. F. Libório Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Alessandro Garcia Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) DOI Pre-print | ||