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Using Tags to Support Feature Management Across Issue Tracking Systems and Version Control Systems

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Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10153))

Abstract

Context & motivation: Features are important for many software engineering activities, e.g. release planning. Companies document features in Issue Tracking Systems (ITS) and store feature code in Version Control Systems (VCS). Question/Problem: However, companies do not always manage features systematically. This issue hinders e.g. the prioritizing of features for release planning. Principal ideas/results: We want to provide insights into practice regarding feature management. We have developed first ideas on lightweight feature management using tags. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight experts to get insight into practice and an early evaluation of our idea. Contribution: The interviews showed that fuzzy feature descriptions, insufficient traceability, and fragmentation of feature knowledge are major practice problems. The interviews thus confirm the need for a method for managing features across ITS and VCS. We propose our lightweight method for feature management and describe future research regarding our approach.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all participating experts for their volunteered time and valuable feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computer Science, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 205, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Marcus Seiler & Barbara Paech

Authors
  1. Marcus Seiler
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  2. Barbara Paech
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Seiler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria

    Paul Grünbacher

  2. Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy

    Anna Perini

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Seiler, M., Paech, B. (2017). Using Tags to Support Feature Management Across Issue Tracking Systems and Version Control Systems. In: Grünbacher, P., Perini, A. (eds) Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. REFSQ 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10153. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54045-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54045-0_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54044-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54045-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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