Who Introduces and Who Fixes? Analyzing Code Quality in Collaborative Student's Projects

TL;DR

This study analyzes how errors are introduced and fixed in student group projects on embedded systems, revealing patterns in error origination, fixing behavior, and timing, with implications for code quality education.

Contribution

It provides new insights into error dynamics in collaborative student projects, highlighting who introduces and fixes errors and when, based on detailed analysis of real course data.

Findings

Most active contributors introduce the most issues.

Many issues are fixed late in the project.

Cross-student fixes take longer, especially in shared code.

Abstract

This paper investigates code quality education by analyzing how errors are introduced and corrected in group projects within an embedded systems course. We identify who introduces errors, who fixes them, and when these actions occur. Students learn code quality rules for C and embedded systems. We address three questions: RQ1: What is the impact of group formation on code quality? RQ2: How do students interact to fix code issues? RQ3: When are issues introduced and resolved? We analyzed data from eight individual labs and two group projects involving 34 students. The course provides continuous, automated feedback on code quality. Findings show that the most active contributors often introduce the most issues. Many issues are fixed late in the project. Individual labs tend to have fewer issues due to their structured nature. Most problems are fixed by the original author, while cross-student fixes take longer, especially in shared code. Critical issues are fixed quickly, but non-critical ones may be ignored, showing a focus on functionality over quality.