Computing Colloquium Student Presentation featuring Sharif Ahmed

The Art of Review: Examining the Utility of Review Comments, Predictors, and Non-Verbal Cues

Presenter: Sharif Ahmed
Computing PhD Student, Computer Science emphasis

Location: In person in CCP 259 or register to attend via Zoom

Abstract: Code Review is crucial for advancing computer science, particularly in Software Engineering. It ensures high-quality, reliable software, contributes to the reliability of AI systems and addresses security vulnerabilities. Effective peer review requires helpful comments and supportive automated tools in collaborative development. It is important to ensure these Code Review comments serve their purposes. This talk reflects the evolution of research on the usefulness of Code Review comments. First, we examine papers that define the usefulness of Code Review comments, mine and annotate datasets, study developers’ perceptions, analyze factors from different aspects, and use classifiers to automatically predict the usefulness of Code Review comments. Second, we investigate the usefulness of Code Review comments through novel textual feature-based and untapped featureless approaches. Third, we present the generalization performance of the benchmark models and datasets, subsequently providing their explanations. Finally, we dive into the utility of Code Review comments by scrutinizing the non-verbal cues that often carry emotive or instructive weight for developers.