✨ (New Frontend) Understanding Collaboration Dynamics in Git Repositories via Interactive Graph-Based Visualisations

[uberroot4]

Problem

In modern software development, it is common practice for multiple developers to contribute code
to a given git repository. While the main focus for both, people and tools, lies on the code itself,
this paper tries to explore the coding dynamics between developers within the same project.
More precisely, the aim of this thesis is to mine git artifacts which relate to group collaboration,
then process their data in order to gain insight into how a team is cooperating. A prototype
will be developed alongside this thesis to facilitate a way of presenting the gained data and to
close this gap in research. The user will be presented with an interactive dashboard, where the
collaboration efforts within the git repository can be seen and a graph-based visualisation will
provide even deeper insights through different metrics such as contribution ratios or rewritten
code.

Expected Results

Exposing this data has a multitude of use cases, from the raw ”data value” to the individual
programmer, to assisted onboarding of novice developers up to guidance in executive business
decisions. Concrete examples for the afore mentioned use cases could be: The individual pro-
grammer can see, which person works on which part/module of the project (in order to ask
questions or establish clarity). Similarly, a newly arrived developer can more easily find their
way around their corresponding team and its code. Lastly, having access to data like ”which
people are working closely together on the same code” or ”which people belong to which team”
can be valuable for project managers and alike. These are just some examples for different user
groups, with many more depending on the individual use case.