Talk given at ICSE '09 in Vancouver, Canada.

1. Improving
Bug Tracking Systems
Thomas Zimmermann Rahul Premraj Jonathan Sillito Silvia Breu
Microsoft Research Saarland University University of Calgary Cambridge University

2. Bugzilla Form
CONTACT LEGAL
Bugzilla – Enter Bug wizard
Home | New | Search | Find | Reports | My Requests | My Votes | Preferences | Log out r.premraj@gmail.com | Terms of Use
Step 2: Where is the bug?
I am reporting a bug with:
Pick one:
*
Eclipse Build ID: *
TIP: You can see the Build ID by clicking Help > About Eclipse (on the Mac: Eclipse > About Eclipse).
Step 3: Has it already been reported?
Please check the list below before entering a new bug. Your bug may have already been submitted by someone else.
Open bug activity in the last two weeks.

3. Bugzilla Form
CONTACT LEGAL
Bugzilla – Enter Bug wizard
Home | New | Search | Find | Reports | My Requests | My Votes | Preferences | Log out r.premraj@gmail.com | Terms of Use
Step 2: Where is the bug?
I am reporting a bug with:
*
Pick one: Choose Product
Eclipse Build ID: *
TIP: You can see the Build ID by clicking Help > About Eclipse (on the Mac: Eclipse > About Eclipse).
Step 3: Has it already been reported?
Please check the list below before entering a new bug. Your bug may have already been submitted by someone else.
Open bug activity in the last two weeks.

4. Open bug activity in the last two weeks.
Bugzilla Form
Step 4: Information
Summary: *
Steps to reproduce: * 1.
2.
3.
TIP: If you can't reproduce the steps or correctly explain them, your bug will likely be closed as an invalid
More information:
bug.
More info.
TIP: Write any information you can provide that will help identify the problem.
* denotes required field.
You're almost done!
Continue to the final step.
Actions: Home | New | Search | Find | Reports | My Requests | My Votes | Preferences | Log out r.premraj@gmail.com
| Terms of Use
Saved Searches:My Bugs
Add the named tag to bugs Commit

5. Mozilla Bug #61287
er
N ovemb
27
Bug reported

6. Mozilla Bug #61287
N ovemb
er
Dec ember
27 29
Bug reported Comment #16
if someone could provide a
stack trace, that would be a
huge help.

7. Mozilla Bug #61287
N ovemb
er
Dec ember March
27 29 6
Bug reported Comment #16 Comment #26
if someone could provide a Fix veri ed.
stack trace, that would be a
huge help.

8. Generation Next
Tool Information
Centric Centric
Improving
bug tracking
systems
User Process
Centric Centric
Image by Sascha Just,VL/HCC ’08

9. Future of Bug Reporting

10. Future of Bug Reporting
Alice
My Eclipse has crashed.
A User

11. Future of Bug Reporting
Alice
My Eclipse has crashed.
A User
Bob
What did you do? A bug tracking
system

12. Future of Bug Reporting
Alice
My Eclipse has crashed.
A User
Bob
What did you do? A bug tracking
system
I clicked on File ! New and OK

13. Future of Bug Reporting
My Eclipse has crashed.
What did you do?
I clicked on File ! New and OK
Did you choose a Java project?

14. Future of Bug Reporting
What did you do?
I clicked on File ! New and OK
Did you choose a Java project?

15. Future of Bug Reporting
What did you do?
I clicked on File ! New and OK
Did you choose a Java project?
No.

16. Future of Bug Reporting
I clicked on File ! New and OK
Did you choose a Java project?
No.

17. Future of Bug Reporting
I clicked on File ! New and OK
Did you choose a Java project?
No.
A few more messages later...

18. Future of Bug Reporting
Did you choose a Java project?
No.
A few more messages later...

19. Future of Bug Reporting
Did you choose a Java project?
No.
A few more messages later...
Thanks Alice. The bug is most
likely in ProjectCreator.java. We
will fix it soon.

20. First steps...
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Train a Decision Tree
X
X
Relevant Questions
Fix location
X
9

21. A First Experiment
20 most frequently
xed les in ECLIPSE JDK
2,875 related bug reports
10

22. Questions as Inputs
• How severe is the bug? (bug_severity)
• On which OS does it occur? (op_sys)
• Which is the affected component?
(component_id)
• Which version of Eclipse is affected?
(version)
• What is your name? (reporter)
11

23. Decision Tree
Root
component_id=Core,UI component_id=Debug
component_id=Text
JavaEditor.java (0.98)
version=1.0, 2.0, 2.1.1 version=2.0.1, 2.0.2, 3.0
ASTConverter.java (0.31)
Reporter = R1 Reporter = R2 Reporter = R3
FormatterRegressionTests.java (0.20) ASTConverter.java (0.16) JavaProject.java (0.16)

24. Next Steps
• Build catalog of important questions
(information) from a large sample of bug
reports.
• Build a prediction model using the data.
• Evaluate model on a different set of bug
reports.
13

25. Poster Presentation
Look for
her
Silvia Breu
14