Construction and utilization of problem-solving knowledge in open source software environments

Abstract

Open Source Software (OSS) has become an important environment where developers can share reusable software assets in a collaborative manner. Although developers can find useful software assets to reuse in the OSS environment, they may face difficulties in finding solutions to problems that occur while integrating the assets with their own software. In OSS, sharing the experiences of solving similar problems among developers usually plays an important role in reducing problem-solving efforts. We analyzed how developers interact with each other to solve problems in OSS, and found that there is a common pattern of exchanging information about symptoms and causes of a problem. In particular, we found that many problems involve multiple symptoms and causes and it is critical to identify those symptoms and causes early to solve the problems more efficiently. We developed a Bayesian network based approach to semiautomatically construct a knowledge base for dealing with problems, and to recommend potential causes of a problem based on multiple symptoms reported in OSS. Our experiments showed that the approach is effective to recommend the core causes of a problem, and contributes to solving the problem in an efficient manner.