Recommendation Systems for Software Engineering

• Published in: IEEE software Vol. 27; no. 4; pp. 80 - 86
• Main Authors: Robillard, Martin, Walker, Robert, Zimmermann, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Alamitos, CA IEEE 01-07-2010; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: Alliances; Applied sciences; coding tools and techniques; Computer programs; Computer science; control theory; systems; Data models; design tools and techniques; Developers; development tools; Exact sciences and technology; Expenses; Information management; Libraries; Navigation; Programming; programming environments; Project management; Recommender systems; Software; software construction tools; Software development; Software engineering; Software industry; Software packages; Software tools; Tasks; Writing; Software development; Programming language; Systems engineering; Steady state; Recommendation; Software engineering
• ISSN: 0740-7459; 1937-4194
• DOI: 10.1109/MS.2009.161

Software development can be challenging because of the large information spaces that developers must navigate. Without assistance, developers can become bogged down and spend a disproportionate amount of their time seeking information at the expense of other value-producing tasks. Recommendation systems for software engineering (RSSEs) are software tools that can assist developers with a wide range of activities, from reusing code to writing effective bug reports. The authors provide an overview of recommendation systems for software engineering: what they are, what they can do for developers, and what they might do in the future.