Software modifications are often systematic. Adding features and fixing bugs often require similar, but not identical, changes to many code locations. In this talk, I will present three research themes on how to support systematic changes during software evolution. First, I will present LASE, an approach that automates systematic edits by learning context-aware edit scripts from examples. It handles both issues of recommending change locations and applying context-aware customized transformation. Second, I will present a field study of refactoring benefits and challenges at Microsoft. It is widely believed that refactoring improves software quality and developer productivity. However, few empirical studies quantitatively assess refactoring benefits. Our analysis of Windows 7 version history finds that the binary modules refactored by a designated refactoring team experienced significant reduction in the number of inter-module dependencies and post-release defects, indicating a tangible benefit of refactoring. Finally, I will present refactoring reconstruction and advanced program differencing techniques that detect systematic changes from program versions to help developers during peer code reviews.
Miryung Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin since 2009. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2001 and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington under the supervision of Dr. David Notkin in 2003 and 2008 respectively. She received NSF CAREER award, Microsoft Software Engineering Innovation Foundation Award in 2011, and IBM Jazz Innovation Award in 2009. She also spent her time as a visiting researcher in the Research in Software Engineering (RiSE) group at Microsoft Research during the summer of 2011. She ranked No. 1 among all engineering and science students in KAIST in 2001 and received Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology Award, the highest honor given to an undergraduate student in Korea.