Hansen, Malte (2021) Collaborative Program Comprehension based on Augmented Reality. (Master thesis), Kiel University, Kiel, 91 pp.

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Abstract

The complexity of software systems increases and thereby maintainability and extensibility become more and more important. Thus, it is crucial to have tools at hand which facilitate program comprehension for various use cases. As complex commercial software systems are developed by large teams with changing team members, it is desirable for such tools to enable and promote collaboration among the involved software professionals.
In this thesis, we present a collaborative visualization approach for program comprehension which employs augmented reality (AR). We integrate our approach by means of an extension to ExplorViz, a web-based open source research and software visualization tool. To achieve AR, we combine printed markers and commercial off-the-shelf mobile devices, i.e. tablet computers and smartphones. For the visualization, we supplement the live camera feed of the employed devices with 3D software models which are aligned with the markers. We provide users with various options to adapt the visualization and retrieve information about the runtime behavior of a software system. The state of the 3D software models can be synchronized between multiple users, thus enabling for collaborative program comprehension.
We gathered preliminary feedback about our approach in a pilot study. Subsequently, a case study with 20 study participants, who solved program comprehension tasks in teams of two, was conducted. The study was conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, our approach is evaluated in diverse environments with a wide range of mobile devices and browsers. The results indicate that collaborative program comprehension by means of an AR software visualization on mobile devices is a promising addition to existing visualization approaches. The comprehensive feedback of the case study also reveals possible adjustments to the implemented approach. We use the gathered feedback to present ideas for the further extension of our approach and conclude by presenting relevant topics for future work.

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