Investigating the Impact of Developer Proficiency on Bug-Fixing Efficiency and Accuracy

The efficiency and accuracy of bug-fixing are vital for timely issue resolution, software quality, and user satisfaction. Assigning a high-proficiency developer to fix bugs can significantly impact resolution times, bug accuracy, code complexity, team productivity, and user experience. This paper evaluates developer proficiency by analyzing bug repository data and its effects on bug-fixing efficiency and accuracy. We introduced a method to measure developer proficiency (DP) based on data from bug repositories, identifying six influencing factors validated by industry practitioners. Then we empirically studied three open-source bug repositories comprising 85,386 issues to investigate the impact of developer proficiency on bug-fixing efficiency and accuracy. Using multiple non-parametric tests, we found that proficient developers are generally more efficient and accurate in bug-fixing. The outcomes of our study can significantly help project managers and team leads to understand the importance of assigning proficient developers to enhance bug-fixing efficiency and accuracy during the software maintenance phase.