The standard coder: a machine learning approach to measuring the effort required to produce source code change

Abstract: We apply machine learning to version control data to measure the quantity of effort required to produce source code changes. We construct a model of a `standard coder' trained from examples of code changes produced by actual software developers together with the labor time they supplied. The effort of a code change is then defined as the labor hours supplied by the standard coder to produce that change. We therefore reduce heterogeneous, structured code changes to a scalar measure of effort derived from large quantities of empirical data on the coding behavior of software developers. The standard coder replaces traditional metrics, such as lines-of-code or function point analysis, and yields new insights into what code changes require more or less effort.