Process improvement for traceability: A study of human fallibility

Wei Keat Kong, Jane Huffman Hayes, Alex Dekhtyar, Olga Dekhtyar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Human analysts working with results from automated traceability tools often make incorrect decisions that lead to lower quality final trace matrices. As the human must vet the results of trace tools for mission- and safety-critical systems, the hopes of developing expedient and accurate tracing procedures lies in understanding how analysts work with trace matrices. This paper describes a study to understand when and why humans make correct and incorrect decisions during tracing tasks through logs of analyst actions. In addition to the traditional measures of recall and precision to describe the accuracy of the results, we introduce and study new measures that focus on analyst work quality: potential recall, sensitivity, and effort distribution. We use these measures to visualize analyst progress towards the final trace matrix, identifying factors that may influence their performance and determining how actual tracing strategies, derived from analyst logs, affect results.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2012 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2012 - Proceedings
Pages31-40
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event2012 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2012 - Chicago, IL, United States
Duration: Sep 24 2012Sep 28 2012

Publication series

Name2012 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2012 - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2012 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago, IL
Period9/24/129/28/12

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Supported by Research Grants GM 13914 and HL 28481 from the National Institutes of Health.

Keywords

  • Human Factors
  • Performance Measures
  • Process Improvement
  • Traceability
  • Tracing Strategies

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software

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