Snapshot Metrics Are Not Enough: Analyzing Software Repositories with Longitudinal Metrics

Abstract

Software metrics capture information about software development processes and products. These metrics support decision-making, e.g., in team management or dependency selection. However, existing metrics tools measure only a snapshot of a software project. Little attention has been given to enabling engineers to reason about metric trends over time -- longitudinal metrics that give insight about process, not just product. In this work, we present PRiME (PRocess MEtrics), a tool for computing and visualizing process metrics. The currently-supported metrics include productivity, issue density, issue spoilage, and bus factor. We illustrate the value of longitudinal data and conclude with a research agenda. The tool's demo video can be watched at https://youtu.be/YigEHy3_JCo. The source code can be found at https://github.com/SoftwareSystemsLaboratory/prime.