Rocks Coding, Not Development–A Human-Centric, Experimental Evaluation of LLM-Supported SE Tasks
Recently, large language models (LLM) based generative AI has been gaining momentum for their impressive high-quality performances in multiple domains, particularly after the release of the ChatGPT. Many believe that they have the potential to perform general-purpose problem-solving in software development and replace human software developers. Nevertheless, there are in a lack of serious investigation into the capability of these LLM techniques in fulfilling software development tasks. In a controlled 2 $\times$ 2 between-subject experiment with 109 participants, we examined whether and to what degree working with ChatGPT was helpful in the coding task and typical software development task and how people work with ChatGPT. We found that while ChatGPT performed well in solving simple coding problems, its performance in supporting typical software development tasks was not that good. We also observed the interactions between participants and ChatGPT and found the relations between the interactions and the outcomes. Our study thus provides first-hand insights into using ChatGPT to fulfill software engineering tasks with real-world developers and motivates the need for novel interaction mechanisms that help developers effectively work with large language models to achieve desired outcomes.
Fri 19 JulDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
11:00 - 12:30 | Human Aspects 3Research Papers / Industry Papers at Mandacaru Chair(s): Eduardo Santana de Almeida Federal University of Bahia | ||
11:00 18mTalk | Exploring Hybrid Work Realities: A Case Study with Software Professionals From Underrepresented Groups Industry Papers Ronnie de Souza Santos University of Calgary, Cleyton Magalhaes Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Robson T. de Souza Santos UNINASSAU, Jorge Correia-Neto Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco | ||
11:18 18mTalk | Rocks Coding, Not Development–A Human-Centric, Experimental Evaluation of LLM-Supported SE Tasks Research Papers Wei Wang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Huilong Ning Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Gaowei Zhang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Libo Liu School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Yi Wang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications DOI Pre-print | ||
11:36 18mTalk | Beyond Code Generation: An Observational Study of ChatGPT Usage in Software Engineering Practice Research Papers Ranim Khojah Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Mazen Mohamad Chalmers | RISE - Research Institutes of Sweden, Philipp Leitner Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Francisco Gomes de Oliveira Neto Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Pre-print | ||
11:54 18mTalk | How to Gain Commit Rights in Modern Top Open Source Communities? Research Papers Xin Tan Beihang University, Yan Gong Beihang University, Geyu Huang Beihang University, Haohua Wu Beihang University, Li Zhang Beihang University DOI Pre-print | ||
12:12 18mTalk | How does Simulation-based Testing for Self-driving Cars match Human Perception? Research Papers Christian Birchler Zurich University of Applied Sciences & University of Bern, Tanzil Kombarabettu Mohammed University of Zurich, Pooja Rani University of Zurich, Teodora Nechita Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Timo Kehrer University of Bern, Sebastiano Panichella Zurich University of Applied Sciences |