Debugging Techniques in Professional Programming
Although debugging is a crucial skill in computer programming, there is no consensus regarding the techniques software engineers use to debug large-scale software systems. This paper describes a preliminary study in which we observed three professional programmers debugging personal and work projects in order to elicit their debugging strategies and techniques. We found that regardless of programming language or task, participants used several common debugging techniques that tended to fall into two modes: identifying the error and fixing the error. We also found that participants rarely used IDE tools but often relied on print statements. Our hope is that once the debugging techniques that professionals use have been identified, the techniques can be integrated into the development of a debugging virtual assistant tool to help aid programmers of all experience levels.