Interaction Design and Activity Theory: designing for social code review

Abstract

This thesis applies activity theory to interaction design of a code review tool. The purpose of this project was two-fold: To understand the practice of code review, and to gain insight into the value of activity theory as a framework for interaction design. Decades of research have shown that code reviews are a valuable software engineering tool. But recent studies suggest that many software development organizations do not use code reviews to their full potential. While code review is often acknowledged as a social practice, few studies address the social, cultural, and historical context surrounding programmers as they conduct reviews. This paper uses activity theory to analyze these contextual factors within a department in a commercial software development organization. Code review practice is found to be informal, highly situated, and multi-motivated. Based on these findings, interaction design concepts are proposed for a Web-based tool that supports collaborative construction, execution, and resolution of code reviews.