Explicit programming strategies

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dc.contributor.authorLaToza, Thomas D.
dc.contributor.authorArab, Maryam
dc.contributor.authorLoksa, Dastyni
dc.contributor.authorKo, Amy J.
dc.date.accessioned2021-04-01T21:49:53Z
dc.date.available2021-04-01T21:49:53Z
dc.date.issued2020-03-07
dc.description.abstractSoftware developers solve a diverse and wide range of problems. While software engineering research often focuses on tools to support this problem solving, the strategies that developers use to solve problems are at least as important. In this paper, we offer a novel approach for enabling developers to follow explicit programming strategies that describe how an expert tackles a common programming problem. We define explicit programming strategies, grounding our definition in prior work both within software engineering and in other professions which have adopted more explicit procedures for problem solving. We then present a novel notation called Roboto and a novel strategy tracker tool that explicitly represent programming strategies and frame executing strategies as a collaborative effort between human abilities to make decisions and computer abilities to structure process and persist information. In a formative evaluation, 28 software developers of varying expertise completed a design task and a debugging task. We found that, compared to developers who are free to choose their own strategies, developers given explicit strategies experienced their work as more organized, systematic, and predictable, but also more constrained. Developers using explicit strategies were objectively more successful at the design and debugging tasks. We discuss the implications of Roboto and these findings, envisioning a thriving ecosystem of explicit strategies that accelerate and improve developers’ programming problem solving.
dc.description.noteThe final published version of the paper is available at the publishers website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-020-09810-1
dc.identifier.citationLaToza, Thomas D., M. Arab, Dastyni Loksa and A. J. Ko. “Explicit programming strategies.” Empirical Software Engineering 25 (2020): 2416-2449.
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10664-020-09810-1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1920/11955
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherEmpirical Software Engineering
dc.rightsAttribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-020-09810-1
dc.subjectComputer programming
dc.subjectTest-driven development
dc.subjectSoftware development
dc.subjectSoftware debugging
dc.titleExplicit programming strategies
dc.typeArticle

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