ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for Pavlina Wurzel Gonçalves, Pooja Rani and Alberto Bacchelli
Congratulations! The paper «Code Review Comprehension: Reviewing Strategies Seen Through Code Comprehension Theories» by Pavlína Wurzel Gonçalves, Pooja Rani, and Alberto Bacchelli and their co-authors from Greece and Canada won the Distinguished Paper Award at the International Conference on Program Comprehension 2025 (ICPC).
The paper «Code Review Comprehension: Reviewing Strategies Seen Through Code Comprehension Theories» was authored by:
– Pavlína Wurzel Gonçalves, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
– Pooja Rani, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
– Diomidis Spinellis, TU Delft, The Netherlands, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
– Margaret-Anne Storey, University of Victoria, Canada
– Alberto Bacchelli, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
One of the major challenges of software developers is understanding code written by other developers. Reviewing code authored by their teammates, e.g. code review, is an essential practice to prevent introduction of defects before the new code is integrated into the software system. If developers cannot understand the code well, their ability to identify defects in it also significantly decreases.
The awarded paper proposes a Code Review Comprehension model which systematically describes how developers form understanding of the code during code review. The results are vital to design better tooling and practices for developers that enable them to follow effective reviewing strategies, form a solid understanding of the reviewed code, and identify defects in the process.