Hipikat (Group Memory for Evolution)

Many artifacts are created as part of a software development, including source code, documentation, bug reports and fixes, e-mail, and version information. The information in these artifacts can often be helpful when trying to perform change tasks on a system. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find the useful information in amongst the huge amount of data stored. When developers are colocated, they can find their way through this morass by talking with other developers. When developers are distributed, the channels of communication are more limited.

We are investigating whether the information in these artifacts can be considered as an implicit group memory that developers can leverage when trying to perform software evolution tasks. A tool, called Hipikat, is under development to support access to this group memory: specifically, the tool recommends information that might be applicable to a specified change task.

For more information visit our main Hipikat page