The Bumpy Road of Taking Automated Debugging to Industry

TL;DR

This paper examines the challenges faced in adopting automated debugging tools in industry, analyzing past efforts and proposing ideas to enhance commercialization and practical adoption.

Contribution

It provides a critical reflection on the commercialization barriers of automated debugging techniques and suggests future directions for industry adoption.

Findings

Automated debugging tools face significant barriers to industrial adoption.

Lack of successful commercialization stories hinders widespread use.

Proposes strategies to improve industry integration of automated debugging.

Abstract

Debugging is arguably among the most difficult and extremely time consuming tasks of the software development life cycle. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that researchers have invested a considerable amount of effort in developing automated techniques and tools to support developers excel in these tasks. Despite the significant advances, including demonstrations of usefulness, efficacy, and efficiency, these techniques are yet to find their way into industrial adoption. In this paper, we reflect upon the commercialization efforts of a particular automated debugging technique and lay down potential reasons for lack of success stories as well as ideas to move forward.