A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction

Context: Although many papers have been published on software defect prediction techniques, machine learning approaches have yet to be fully explored. Objective: In this paper we suggest using a descriptive approach for defect prediction rather than the pre-cise classification techniques that are us...

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Authors: Rodríguez, Daniel; Ruiz, Roberto; Riquelme Santos, José Cristóbal; Harrison, Rachel
Format: Article
Status:Submitted version
Publication date:2013
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repository:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/43511
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11441/43511
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2013.05.002
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Subgroup discovery
Rules
Defect Prediction
Imbalanced datasets
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author Rodríguez, Daniel
author2 Ruiz, Roberto
Riquelme Santos, José Cristóbal
Harrison, Rachel
author2_role author
author
author
author_browse Harrison, Rachel
Riquelme Santos, José Cristóbal
Rodríguez, Daniel
Ruiz, Roberto
author_facet Rodríguez, Daniel
Ruiz, Roberto
Riquelme Santos, José Cristóbal
Harrison, Rachel
author_role author
collection idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
description Context: Although many papers have been published on software defect prediction techniques, machine learning approaches have yet to be fully explored. Objective: In this paper we suggest using a descriptive approach for defect prediction rather than the pre-cise classification techniques that are usually adopted. This allows us to characterise defective modules with simple rules that can easily be applied by practitioners and deliver a practical (or engineering) approach rather than a highly accurate result. Method: We describe two well-known subgroup discovery algorithms, the SD algorithm and the CN2-SD algorithm to obtain rules that identify defect prone modules. The empirical work is performed with pub-licly available datasets from the Promise repository and object-oriented metrics from an Eclipse reposi-tory related to defect prediction. Subgroup discovery algorithms mitigate against characteristics of datasets that hinder the applicability of classification algorithms and so remove the need for preprocess-ing techniques. Results: The results show that the generated rules can be used to guide testing effort in order to improve the quality of software development projects. Such rules can indicate metrics, their threshold values and relationships between metrics of defective modules. Conclusions: The induced rules are simple to use and easy to understand as they provide a description rather than a complete classification of the whole dataset. Thus this paper represents an engineering approach to defect prediction, i.e., an approach which is useful in practice, easily understandable and can be applied by practitioners.
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institution Universidad de Sevilla (US)
instname_str Universidad de Sevilla (US)
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
oai_identifier_str oai:idus.us.es:11441/43511
publishDate 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher Elsevier
publisherStr Elsevier
reponame_str idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
spelling A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction Rodríguez, Daniel Ruiz, Roberto Riquelme Santos, José Cristóbal Harrison, Rachel Subgroup discovery Rules Defect Prediction Imbalanced datasets Context: Although many papers have been published on software defect prediction techniques, machine learning approaches have yet to be fully explored. Objective: In this paper we suggest using a descriptive approach for defect prediction rather than the pre-cise classification techniques that are usually adopted. This allows us to characterise defective modules with simple rules that can easily be applied by practitioners and deliver a practical (or engineering) approach rather than a highly accurate result. Method: We describe two well-known subgroup discovery algorithms, the SD algorithm and the CN2-SD algorithm to obtain rules that identify defect prone modules. The empirical work is performed with pub-licly available datasets from the Promise repository and object-oriented metrics from an Eclipse reposi-tory related to defect prediction. Subgroup discovery algorithms mitigate against characteristics of datasets that hinder the applicability of classification algorithms and so remove the need for preprocess-ing techniques. Results: The results show that the generated rules can be used to guide testing effort in order to improve the quality of software development projects. Such rules can indicate metrics, their threshold values and relationships between metrics of defective modules. Conclusions: The induced rules are simple to use and easy to understand as they provide a description rather than a complete classification of the whole dataset. Thus this paper represents an engineering approach to defect prediction, i.e., an approach which is useful in practice, easily understandable and can be applied by practitioners. ICEBERG IAPP-2012-324356 MICINN TIN2011-28956-C02-00 Elsevier http://hdl.handle.net/11441/43511 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2013.05.002
spellingShingle A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
Rodríguez, Daniel
Subgroup discovery
Rules
Defect Prediction
Imbalanced datasets
status_str submittedVersion
title A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
title_full A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
title_fullStr A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
title_full_unstemmed A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
title_short A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
title_sort A study of subgroup discovery approaches for defect prediction
topic Subgroup discovery
Rules
Defect Prediction
Imbalanced datasets
topic_facet Subgroup discovery
Rules
Defect Prediction
Imbalanced datasets
url http://hdl.handle.net/11441/43511
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2013.05.002