Measuring Software Developers' Perceived Difficulty with Biometric Sensors

Abstract

As a developer works on a change task, he or she might perceive some parts of the task as easy and other parts as being very difficult. Currently, little is known about when a developer experiences different difficulty levels, although being able to assess these difficulty levels would be helpful for many reasons. For instance, a developer's perceived difficulty might be used to determine the likelihood of a bug being introduced into the code or the quality of the code a developer is working with. In psychology, biometric measurements, such as electro-dermal activity or heart rate, have already been extensively used to assess a person's mental state and emotions, but only little research has been conducted to investigate how these sensors can be used in the context of software engineering. In our research we want to take advantage of the insights gained in these psychological studies and investigate whether such biometric sensors can be used to measure developers' perceived difficulty while working on a change task and support them in their work.