Improving software quality by managing technical debt and uncovering security vulnerabilities

软件对于几乎每个企业、行业和个人的成功都至关重要。开发高质量的软件产品势在必行。然而，为了实现更快的软件发布或更低的开发成本等短期目标，软件从业者往往在软件开发过程中走捷径。这种变通办法被称为技术债务。如果管理不当，从长远来看，技术债务可能会导致灾难性的后果，如增加可维护性成本、降低开发人员生产率、增加缺陷数量，以及软件退化(Decay)。技术债务管理通常包括确定、评估(成本和影响)和确定优先顺序。这之后通常是代码重构或重新工程等活动。虽然专注于软件缺陷的软件质量有着丰富的研究历史，但技术债务研究在过去十年中获得了势头。这项研究的长期目标是通过以下方式更好地管理技术债务：(1)调查导致技术债务的设计决策，以便在未来做出更可持续的决策；(2)使用技术债务，更具体地说，代码和架构气味来发现软件漏洞；以及(3)分析开发人员的行为，通过了解他们与技术债务有关的优势和劣势来创建开发人员档案，以便更好地分配资源和进行定制培训。本研究将在各种专业技能方面培训HQP：数据挖掘、统计分析、机器学习和实证研究，为加拿大不断增长的信息和通信技术部门做出贡献。该公司曾预测，到2020年将缺少20万名信通技术专业人员。通过生产质量更好的软件和越来越多的高技能HQP，加拿大将吸引更多的公司在这里站稳脚跟。这将通过增加信息和通信技术部门的收入来提振加拿大经济，该部门占2019年全国GDP的4.8%。此外，我们将与萨斯喀彻温省的当地公司密切合作，帮助他们提高软件质量。

Software is of paramount importance to the success of almost every business, industry, and individual. It is imperative that quality software products are developed. However, to achieve short-term objectives such as a faster release of the software or lower development cost, software practitioners often take shortcuts during software development. Such workarounds are known as technical debt. If not properly managed, in the long-term, technical debt can lead to disastrous consequences such as increased maintainability cost, lower developer productivity, increased number of defects, and software deterioration (decay). Technical debt management typically consists of identification, assessment (cost and impact), and prioritization. This is usually followed by activities such as refactoring or reengineering of the code. While software quality with a focus on software defects has a rich research history, technical debt research has gained momentum over the last decade. The long-term objective of this research is to better manage technical debt by (1) investigating the design decisions that led to technical debt for more sustainable decisions in the future, (2) using technical debt, more specifically, code and architectural smells to uncover software vulnerabilities, and (3) analyzing developers' behavior to create developers' profiles by understanding their strengths and weaknesses concerning technical debt, for better resource allocation and customized training.  This research will train HQPs in various specialized skills: data mining, statistical analysis, machine learning, and empirical studies, to contribute to the ever-growing ICT sector in Canada, which had projected a shortage of 200 000 ICT professionals by 2020. By enabling the production of better quality software and with an increasing number of highly skilled HQPs, Canada will attract more companies to establish themselves here. This will boost the Canadian economy by increasing revenues in the ICT sector, which accounts for 4.8% of the 2019 national GDP. In addition, we will work closely with the local companies in Saskatchewan to help them improve their software quality.