CAREER: Transforming Peer Code Review Environments for Code Learning and High-Quality Feedback

职业：转变同行代码审查环境以实现代码学习和高质量反馈

• 批准号: 2340389
• 负责人: Amiangshu Bosu
• 金额: $ 59.68万
• 依托单位: Wayne State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-05-01 至 2029-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2340389&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Transforming; Peer; Code; Review

Peer Code Review (CR) is a mandatory software verification practice among most Open Source and commercial software development organizations. In this practice, one or more peers inspect and approve a code change before integrating it into a project's repository. As developers spend significant effort daily on CR tasks, improving CR effectiveness is a high priority for these organizations. Challenges limiting CR effectiveness include i) code learning difficulties with limited time and code context, ii) misunderstandings among the participants over confusing suggestions, and iii) interpersonal conflicts due to disrespectful feedback. In the short term, these challenges increase required efforts, delay the outcomes, increase the likelihood of rejections, and frustrate the participants. In the long term, these challenges degrade software quality, cause conflicts among the participants, demotivate an inappropriately written review's target, pose barriers to newcomers' onboarding, disproportionately impact minorities, and even cause long-term developers to leave permanently. Despite several studies confirming these short and long-term consequences, practical solutions to these challenges remain nonexistent. The project will work to improve code reviews using empirical methods, machine learning and natural language techniques to produce tools to be used in code reviews. The new knowledge and tools will be used as an educational platform that will support students and new programmers. The project will integrate the research into education by using the tools in classes and curriculum development, using the classroom setting to gain understanding of how to support developers in professional code-review ecosystems. The overarching goal of this project is to transform code review tools and workflows to address participants' challenges in understanding the code under review and communicate that understanding with others in unambiguous and constructive languages. This project will empirically develop a theoretical framework for each of the three aforementioned CR challenges to characterize the root causes and potential mitigating solutions. The experimental platform will transform CR tools into an online learning environments that integrate additional cognitive support tools to support unmet or partially met information needs and just-in-time coaching to assist CR participants in communicating unambiguously and constructively.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

同行代码审查 (CR) 是大多数开源和商业软件开发组织中的强制性软件验证实践。在此实践中，一个或多个同行在将代码更改集成到项目的存储库之前检查并批准代码更改。由于开发人员每天在 CR 任务上花费大量精力，因此提高 CR 有效性是这些组织的首要任务。限制 CR 有效性的挑战包括 i) 在有限的时间和代码背景下进行代码学习困难，ii) 参与者因令人困惑的建议而产生误解，以及 iii) 由于不尊重的反馈而导致的人际冲突。在短期内，这些挑战会增加所需的努力，延迟结果，增加拒绝的可能性，并使参与者感到沮丧。从长远来看，这些挑战会降低软件质量，引起参与者之间的冲突，使不恰当的书面审查目标失去动力，对新人的入职构成障碍，对少数人产生不成比例的影响，甚至导致长期开发人员永久离开。尽管多项研究证实了这些短期和长期后果，但应对这些挑战的实际解决方案仍然不存在。 该项目将致力于使用经验方法、机器学习和自然语言技术来改进代码审查，以生产用于代码审查的工具。新的知识和工具将用作支持学生和新程序员的教育平台。该项目将通过使用课堂和课程开发中的工具将研究整合到教育中，利用课堂环境来了解如何支持专业代码审查生态系统中的开发人员。该项目的总体目标是转变代码审查工具和工作流程，以解决参与者在理解所审查的代码方面面临的挑战，并以明确和建设性的语言与其他人交流这种理解。该项目将为上述三个 CR 挑战中的每一个挑战建立一个理论框架，以描述根本原因和潜在的缓解解决方案。该实验平台将把 CR 工具转变为在线学习环境，集成额外的认知支持工具来支持未满足或部分满足的信息需求，并提供及时辅导，帮助 CR 参与者进行明确和建设性的沟通。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命和通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，该项目被认为值得支持。