Faster Onboarding of Developers in Existing Codebases

Master thesis (2018)

Authors

S.Y. van den Oever Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Contributors

A.E. Zaidman (mentor)
Maurício Aniche (graduation committee member)
C.C.S. Liem (graduation committee member)
W. Van (coach)
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright: © 2018 Sander van den Oever
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Published Date

11-10-2018

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Abstract

When a new software developer joins bunq, a Dutch bank, (s)he will need some time to get familiar with the existing codebase. Preferably, the time necessary for the familiarisation is as short as possible. The faster the developer is up to speed, the faster (s)he can contribute to new features and help solving bugs. This research develops a prototype for a tool that aims to support developers in the comprehension of the PHP backend of bunq. This tool has been evaluated by interviewing multiple developers. Furthermorewe asked the developerswhether the toolwould be able to replace a senior developer regarding question asking. During the interviews feedback was acquired on the current prototype. New developers found the tool useful, although there was also room for improvement. More experienced developers indicated that they found the tool less useful, but saw opportunities to use the tool for more managerial-like tasks.