Bilkent University
Department of Computer Engineering
CS 590/690 SEMINAR
Augmenting Bus Factor Analysis with Visualization
Muhammad Umair AHMED
Master Student
(Supervisor: Asst.Prof.Eray Tüzün )
Computer Engineering Department
Bilkent University
Abstract: ‘Bus factor’, also known as ‘truck factor’, is a measure of how vulnerable a software project is based on the minimum number of people who would have to leave the project (be ‘hit by a bus’) for it to stall. There is existing research on how to calculate the bus factor for software projects but to the best of our knowledge, there is very limited work on making it more accessible and actionable using visualization. We built a tool to provide an interactive visualization of the bus factor and top authors of a project and its directories and files as well as a simulation of how the bus factor will be affected if certain team members leave. We hypothesize that providing visualization along with quantitative results that existing algorithms generate will aid stakeholders in understanding the state of the project and managing it better. Whether it’s distributing the workload or planning for hiring decisions, we intend for our tool to provide insight into individual and team contributions, and enable more informed decision-making. We will run a UX study with industry practitioners as participants for the bus factor visualization app (BFViz) we are developing to validate our hypothesis.
DATE: April 3, Monday @ 15:50 Place: Zoom