In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.

Most previous research focuses on finding Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD) or detecting bugs alone, rather to addressing the concurrent identification of both issues. These study investigations solely identify and classify the SATD or faults, without identifying or categorising bugs based on SATD...

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Main Authors: Sajid Ullah, M Irfan Uddin, Muhammad Adnan, Ala Abdulsalam Alarood, Abdulkream Alsulami, Safa Habibullah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324847
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author Sajid Ullah
M Irfan Uddin
Muhammad Adnan
Ala Abdulsalam Alarood
Abdulkream Alsulami
Safa Habibullah
author_facet Sajid Ullah
M Irfan Uddin
Muhammad Adnan
Ala Abdulsalam Alarood
Abdulkream Alsulami
Safa Habibullah
author_sort Sajid Ullah
collection DOAJ
description Most previous research focuses on finding Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD) or detecting bugs alone, rather to addressing the concurrent identification of both issues. These study investigations solely identify and classify the SATD or faults, without identifying or categorising bugs based on SATD. Furthermore, the majority of current methodologies do not incorporate contemporary deep learning techniques. This work presents an innovative method utilising deep learning techniques to discover and classify Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD) and to find defects in software comments associated with SATD. The proposed approach detects this issue and classifies and enhances the understanding and localization of defects. The methodology involves developing a deep learning model using diverse data from repositories, including Apache, Mozilla Firefox, and Eclipse. The chosen data set comprises projects, designated SATD examples, and bug instances, facilitating thorough model training and evaluation. The methodology comprises data analysis, preprocessing, and model training utilising deep learning architectures such as LSTM, BI-LSTM, GRU, and BI-GRU, with Transformer models like BERT and GPT-3, in conjunction with machine learning methods. The performance evaluation criteria, such as precision, recall, accuracy, and F1 score, illustrate the efficacy of the suggested method. Comparative assessment with existing methodologies underscores notable improvements, while cross-validation ensures model resilience. All deep learning models achieved an accuracy and precision of 0.98, and transformer models achieved slightly higher metrics. The GPT-3 achieved an overall accuracy of 0.984. We see that using the transfer learning approach the transformer model (GPT-3) outperformed the other as it achieved an overall accuracy of 0.96 and F1-Score of 0.96, precision of 0.96, and recall of 0.96, and deep learning models (LSTM, GRU) also give significant performance, but their accuracy is slightly lower than baseline model (Naive Bayes). The research has significant implications for software engineering, providing a comprehensive method for software quality assessment and maintenance. It enhances software architecture technical debt (SATD) and knowledge of bugs, as well as prioritization and resource allocation for software maintenance and evolution. The research's ramifications go beyond academia; it has a direct impact on business procedures and makes it easier to create software systems that are reliable and long-lasting.
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spelling doaj-art-2a1eaae28f7741e7bfa1e3e24b1025b82025-08-20T02:06:39ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01206e032484710.1371/journal.pone.0324847In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.Sajid UllahM Irfan UddinMuhammad AdnanAla Abdulsalam AlaroodAbdulkream AlsulamiSafa HabibullahMost previous research focuses on finding Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD) or detecting bugs alone, rather to addressing the concurrent identification of both issues. These study investigations solely identify and classify the SATD or faults, without identifying or categorising bugs based on SATD. Furthermore, the majority of current methodologies do not incorporate contemporary deep learning techniques. This work presents an innovative method utilising deep learning techniques to discover and classify Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD) and to find defects in software comments associated with SATD. The proposed approach detects this issue and classifies and enhances the understanding and localization of defects. The methodology involves developing a deep learning model using diverse data from repositories, including Apache, Mozilla Firefox, and Eclipse. The chosen data set comprises projects, designated SATD examples, and bug instances, facilitating thorough model training and evaluation. The methodology comprises data analysis, preprocessing, and model training utilising deep learning architectures such as LSTM, BI-LSTM, GRU, and BI-GRU, with Transformer models like BERT and GPT-3, in conjunction with machine learning methods. The performance evaluation criteria, such as precision, recall, accuracy, and F1 score, illustrate the efficacy of the suggested method. Comparative assessment with existing methodologies underscores notable improvements, while cross-validation ensures model resilience. All deep learning models achieved an accuracy and precision of 0.98, and transformer models achieved slightly higher metrics. The GPT-3 achieved an overall accuracy of 0.984. We see that using the transfer learning approach the transformer model (GPT-3) outperformed the other as it achieved an overall accuracy of 0.96 and F1-Score of 0.96, precision of 0.96, and recall of 0.96, and deep learning models (LSTM, GRU) also give significant performance, but their accuracy is slightly lower than baseline model (Naive Bayes). The research has significant implications for software engineering, providing a comprehensive method for software quality assessment and maintenance. It enhances software architecture technical debt (SATD) and knowledge of bugs, as well as prioritization and resource allocation for software maintenance and evolution. The research's ramifications go beyond academia; it has a direct impact on business procedures and makes it easier to create software systems that are reliable and long-lasting.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324847
spellingShingle Sajid Ullah
M Irfan Uddin
Muhammad Adnan
Ala Abdulsalam Alarood
Abdulkream Alsulami
Safa Habibullah
In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.
PLoS ONE
title In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.
title_full In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.
title_fullStr In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.
title_full_unstemmed In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.
title_short In-depth exploration of software defects and self-admitted technical debt through cutting-edge deep learning techniques.
title_sort in depth exploration of software defects and self admitted technical debt through cutting edge deep learning techniques
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324847
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