Enhancing Bug Reports for Mobile Apps

TL;DR

This paper introduces FUSION, a novel system that enhances mobile app bug reports by auto-completing reproduction steps, linking user-provided info to program artifacts, thereby improving bug reproducibility and report quality.

Contribution

FUSION is a new method that automates and improves bug reporting for mobile apps by integrating static and dynamic analysis to assist users in creating detailed reports.

Findings

FUSION enables more reliable bug reproduction from reports.

Users report more detailed, application-specific information.

FUSION improves bug report quality compared to traditional systems.

Abstract

The modern software development landscape has seen a shift in focus toward mobile applications as "smart" devices near ubiquitous adoption. Due to this trend, the complexity of mobile applications has been increasing, making development and maintenance particularly challenging. However, it is clear that current bug tracking systems are not able effectively support construction of reports with actionable information that will directly lead to a bug's resolution. To address the need for an improved reporting system, we introduce a novel solution, called FUSION, that helps users auto-complete reproduction steps in bug reports for mobile apps. FUSION links information, that users provide, to program artifacts extracted through static and dynamic analysis performed before testing or release. The approach that FUSION employs is generalizable to other current mobile software platforms, and constitutes a new method by which off-device bug reporting can be conducted for mobile software projects. We evaluate FUSION by conducting a study that quantitatively and qualitatively measures the user experience of the system for both reporting and reproducing bugs, as well as the quality of the bug reports it produces. In a study involving 28 participants we apply FUSION to support the maintenance tasks of reporting and reproducing defects on 15 real-world bugs found in 14 open source Android apps. Our results demonstrate that FUSION allows for more reliable reproduction of bugs from reports by aiding users in reporting more detailed application-specific information compared to traditional bug tracking systems.