The impact of bug management patterns on bug fixing: A case study of Eclipse projects

An efficient bug management process is critical for the success of software projects. Prior work has focused on improving this process, for example, by automating bug triaging, detecting duplicate bugs, and understanding the rationale for re-opening bugs. This paper continues this line of work by exploring the people who are involved in the bug management process. In particular we develop four patterns that distill the different relations between the people involved in the process: the reporter, triager, and fixer of a bug. Through a case study on the Eclipse Platform and JDT projects, we demonstrate that these patterns have an impact on the efficiency of the bug management process. For example, we find that using our patterns project personnel can improve their efficiency through better communication about bugs before assigning them.