A systematic literature review and taxonomy of modern code review

N Davila, I Nunes - Journal of Systems and Software, 2021 - Elsevier
Journal of Systems and Software, 2021Elsevier
Abstract Context: Modern Code Review (MCR) is a widely known practice of software quality
assurance. However, the existing body of knowledge of MCR is currently not understood as
a whole. Objective: Our goal is to identify the state of the art on MCR, providing a structured
overview and an in-depth analysis of the research done in this field. Methods: We performed
a systematic literature review, selecting publications from four digital libraries. Results: A
total of 139 papers were selected and analyzed in three main categories. Foundational …
Context
Modern Code Review (MCR) is a widely known practice of software quality assurance. However, the existing body of knowledge of MCR is currently not understood as a whole.
Objective
Our goal is to identify the state of the art on MCR, providing a structured overview and an in-depth analysis of the research done in this field.
Methods
We performed a systematic literature review, selecting publications from four digital libraries.
Results
A total of 139 papers were selected and analyzed in three main categories. Foundational studies are those that analyze existing or collected data from the adoption of MCR. Proposals consist of techniques and tools to support MCR, while evaluations are studies to assess an approach or compare a set of them.
Conclusion
The most represented category is foundational studies, mainly aiming to understand the motivations for adopting MCR, its challenges and benefits, and which influence factors lead to which MCR outcomes. The most common types of proposals are code reviewer recommender and support to code checking. Evaluations of MCR-supporting approaches have been done mostly offline, without involving human subjects. Five main research gaps have been identified, which point out directions for future work in the area.
Elsevier
Showing the best result for this search. See all results