Creating Usable and Useful Software Tools

Creating Usable and Useful Software Tools

Gail Murphy, University of British Columbia

Abstract

Software that requires maintenance and evolution presumably has value that causes the producers of the software—individuals and organizations—to invest in these activities. Given that there is almost always more that any given software package or product can provide, software producers should be motivated in enabling maintenance and evolution activities and should be interested in the software engineering research efforts that are undertaken to address identified pain points. Yet, despite efforts by providers of research results (software engineering researchers) and interest by recipients (software producing individuals and organizations), a gap remains and too few research results make their way into use. In this talk, I will focus on research results that take the form of software tools for software producers and explore what this gap is and how the gap might be bridged. This exploration will aim to provide some practical tips for how to orient research to create usable and useful software tools.

Bio

Gail C. Murphy is a Professor of Computer Science and Vice-President Research and Innovation at the University of British Columbia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), as well as co-founder of Tasktop Technologies Incorporated. After completing her B.Sc. at the University of Alberta, she worked for five years as a software engineer in Vancouver BC. She later pursued graduate studies in computer science at the University of Washington, earning a M.Sc. and Ph.D. before joining UBC. Dr. Murphy’s research focuses on improving the productivity of software developers and knowledge workers by providing the necessary tools to identify, manage and coordinate the information that matters most for their work.