Software evolution storylines

This paper presents a technique for visualizing the interactions between developers in software project evolution. The goal is to produce a visualization that shows more detail than animated software histories, like code swarm [15], but keeps the same focus on aesthetics and presentation. Our software evolution storylines technique draws inspiration from XKCD's "Movie Narrative Charts" and the aesthetic design of metro maps. We provide the algorithm, design choices, and examine the results of using the storylines technique. Our conclusion is that the it is able to show more details when compared to animated software project history videos. However, it does not scale to the largest projects, such as Eclipse and Mozilla. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.m [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: Miscellaneous General Terms Design Keywords Software Visualization, Software Evolution, Storylines

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: SOFTVIS
• Authors: Michael Ogawa, Kwan-Liu Ma
• Keywords: SOFTVIS 2010, Software, Software Evolution Storylines, Software Project, Visualization