How  Does  a  Typical  

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How  Does  a  Typical  

for  Mobile  Development  Look  Like?      

How Does a Typical Tutorial for Mobile Development look like?  Rebecca Tiarks, Walid Maalej – MSR’14

Full paper mobis.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/research/publications

So;ware  Development  is  a  Knowledge  Work  

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Developers  spend    

more  than    50%  of  their  Dme  

looking  for  informaDon    

[Fjeldstad  &  Hamlen  1979][Ko  et  al.  2006]  [Sillito  et  al  2007]  [Zimmermann  &  Begel  2014]  

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Online  Tutorials  are  an  Important  Source  of  Knowledge  

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Example:  Using  the  GPS  Sensor  of  Smartphones  

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Research  QuesDons:  Structure  

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1.  Length:  How  long  are  tutorials?    

4.  Lists  and  secDons:  How  are  structural  elements  such  as  secHons  and  lists  used  in  tutorials?    

2.  Source  code:  How  much  source  code  is  in  tutorials?    

3.  Images:  What  images  are  included  in  tutorials?    

5.  Links:  How  many  links    are  included  in  tutorials?      

Research  QuesDons:  EvoluDon  

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6.  EvoluDon:  Are  there  changes  in  the  tutorial  structure  between    different  revisions  of  the  system  documented  by  the  tutorial?    

Research  QuesDons:  Content  

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7.  Topics:  Which  topics  are  covered  by  development  tutorials?  

8.  Topic  popularity:  How  popular  are  the    topics  across  different  types  of  tutorials?    

Overview  of  Research  

Select DevelopmentPlatformss

Data Collection Phase

Select OfficialSites

Select CommunitySites

Query TutorialSources

LDA TopicModeling

StatisticalAnalysis

Data Analyses Phase

Image Analysis

Data Cleaning

Structure

Structure

Manual TopicLabeling

Content

Content

Query TutorialArchives

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Tutorial   #  tutorials   size  (#  words)   Ø  size  (#  words)  

Android community   48   108.891   2.269  

Android official   91   530.528   5.830  

Apple community   469   1.368.306   2.917  

Apple official   557   2.013.937   3.616  

Windows community   87   62.291   716  

Windows official   22   19.139   870  

Research  Data  

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Results:  Structure  

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1.  Length:  2700  words  average  (both  community  and  official)    

4.  Lists  and  secDons:  longer  (more  items)  in  official  but  more  words  per  item  in  community  

2.  Source  code:  70%  of  all  tutorials  contain  source  code  

3.  Images:  used  in  70%  of  tutorials  with  more  images  in  community  tutorials    

5.  Links:  All  tutorials  include  links  but  the  use  of  links  to  APIs  is  heterogeneous    

Results:  Tutorial  EvoluDon  

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Apple  Official  

Windows  Official  

Windows  Community  

Android  Community  

Andorid  Official  

Apple  Community  

Number  of  Words  

2012  

2013  

Results:  IdenDfied  Topics  

12  0%   20%   40%   60%  

Community    Problems,  and  soluHons    

LocaHon  services    AnimaHons    ConnecHvity    

Hardware,  screens  Games  

TesHng  and  debugging    Security,  and  perm.  rights  

Events  and  gestures    MulHmedia    

Data  storage  and  I/O    ApplicaHon  lifecycle    Dev.  environments    

GUI,  layout  App  store,  deploy  

Architecture    

Community  

Official  

Results:  Topic  Categories  and  their  Popularity  

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Category   Topics   Pop.  offic.  

Pop.  comm.  

Infrastructure  and  design  

Architecture,  frameworks,  applicaHon  lifecycle,  data  storage,  I/O,  security,  access,  permissions,  and  connecHvity    

78%   69%  

ApplicaDon  and  services  

GUI,  layout,  graphics,  animaHons,  games,  mulHmedia,  locaHon,  events,  and  gestures     47%   72%  

DistribuDon  &  maintenance  

App  store,  deployment,  licensing,  problems/soluHons,  tesHng/debugging,  hardware  screens,  and  devices    

39%   35%  

Development  environments   Development  environments     14%   30%  

Summary  

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Tutorials  are  valuable  documentaHon  and  complement  other  types  of  documentaHon.  

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Tutorials  evolve  possibly  with  the  evoluHon  of  the  system  or  pladorm  being  described.  

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Tutorials  created  by  the  community  seem  to  be  complementary  to  the  official  tutorials.  

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“Mobile”  tutorials  extensively  use  structural  elements.  Their  content  ohen  describes  design,  applicaHon  and  distribuHon.  

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Thank    you!  

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Prof.  Dr.  Walid  Maalej    Rebecca  Tiarks  

mobis.informaHk.uni-­‐hamburg.de  

University  of  Hamburg,  Germany  

To  read  the  paper:  mobis.informaHk.uni-­‐hamburg.de/research/publicaHons