# Graph-Driven Exploration of Issue Handling Schemes in Software Projects
## 6 Discussion  
The presented scheme of analyzing issue handling processes significantly extends the scope of investigations as compared with those proposed in the literature (Section 2). It provides a multidimensional and detailed view of issue handling processes and extends the related knowledge database on software project development which can be used as a supervised expert system. General issue resolution features (Section 4.1) provide a rough assessment of the project progress, which can be expanded upon fine-grained studies with the IHM focused on the detailed investigation of issue processing (Sections 4.2 and 4.3). Analyzing the effectiveness of issue processing, we consider the diversity of issue types, relevant attributes, and additional features. These data are extracted from ITS repositories with appropriate interfaces. Systematic analysis is ensured by the developed framework constructed around the introduced IHM combined with the relevant database. The included exploration algorithms derive assessment metrics and characterize profiles which provide a concise and intuitive presentation of issue handling properties. When loading data into databases, some normalization can be involved to facilitate result comparison between projects. This relates to defining compatible attribute values, related issue types, priority levels, resolution methods, sets of used handling states, and their meaning. Repository exploration includes higher levels of state or path classes, the specification of anomalous situations, and relevant statistic metrics and profiles (direct or aggregated). It can be adjusted according to issue types and other restricting conditions that specify the analysis' scope. Issue handling processes can be analyzed based on diverse perspectives: within-project or cross-project studies. The first perspective can be divided into within-version and cross-version studies (depending on whether data are analyzed in the same version or diverse versions of the project). The proposed systemized and holistic study of the ITS repository facilitates the identification of characteristic issue processing schemes depending upon their types and other features, distinguishing between good and bad practices, which is helpful for improving development processes and creating relevant knowledge database. This is especially interesting in cross-project studies. Here, the gained experience is useful in enhancing within-project studies. In long-term projects, actor fluctuations, organizational changes, and introduced reporting refinements (e.g., state redefinition) impact issue handling patterns, which can also be explored with the introduced framework based on the IHM. Statistics related to issue processing states (Section 5.1) show deficiencies in their usage (low issue coverage--U\({}_{\text{s}}\)) or excessive handling times (high Q3 values). They may trigger the need for state redefinition/unification or project actor reallocation to processing states (considering their load and competence). More attention is needed to monitor issue paths' structural, timing, and issue flow profiles (Section 5.2). Good development practices result in a low number of well-structured dominating paths covering most issues, low handling times for high-priority issues, and satisfactory values for other issues (e.g., not exceeding the Scrum sprint period). Some troubling situations relate to an excessive number of paths and their complex and nonuniform structures, e.g., many states, loops, intermingled issue resolution states, a lack of termination states, ambiguous two-state paths (e.g., _Open_, _Closed_), and aberrant state transitions (e.g., _fixed_-_duplicated_). They are identified via the introduced classification schemes. This can be correlated with timing features and tracing comment sequence profiles at the general, state or path levels (Section 5.3). Too long comment sequences or repeated information comments indicate actors' misunderstanding or imprecise reporting.