Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon

Coming Attractions in Program Understanding

Scott R. Tilley
Dennis B. Smith

Technical Report
CMU/SEI-96-TR-019

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Program understanding is the (ill-defined) deductive process of acquiring knowledge about a software artifact through analysis, abstraction, and generalization. This report identifies some of the emerging technologies in program understanding. We present technical capabilities currently under development that may be of significant benefit to practitioners within five years. Three areas of work are explored: investigating cognitive aspects, developing support mechanisms, and maturing the practice.