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A family of experiments about how developers perceive delayed system response time
Oscar Cornejo1, Daniela Briola2, Daniela Micucci2
1Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Software Quality Journal
|June 24, 2024
Summary
Developers can tolerate some system overhead without noticing. The order of operations significantly impacts perceived response times, informing better monitoring tool design.
Area of Science:
- Software Engineering
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Performance Monitoring
Background:
- Developer productivity tools collect performance data.
- Monitoring can degrade system performance and user experience.
- Understanding developer perception of overhead is crucial for effective monitoring.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically quantify developer perception of application overhead.
- To identify conditions under which overhead is not perceived by developers.
- To inform the design of less intrusive monitoring techniques.
Main Methods:
- Three replications of an experiment with 99 computer science students.
- Experimental assessment with 12 professional developers.
- Quantification of perceived overhead during development tasks.
Main Results:
- Non-negligible overhead can be introduced for short durations without developer perception.
- The sequence of complex operation execution affects perceived system response time.
- Developers' perception of overhead is influenced by task context.
Conclusions:
- Monitoring techniques can be optimized to minimize perceived impact on developers.
- System response time perception is malleable and can be managed.
- Findings enable the development of more efficient and less disruptive application monitoring strategies.
