List of human-centered software engineering dissertations

This is a list of dissertations that focus on the human aspects of software engineering. I really wanted a resource like this when I was a graduate student, so here it is. If you don't know where to begin, take a look at my quick start guide to research on human factors of software engineering.

Feel free to contribute to this list on GitHub.

2020

• User-Centered Design of Principled Programming Languages
  • Michael Coblenz advised by Jonathan Aldrich and Brad Myers at Carnegie Mellon University
• Expanding Interface Design Capabilities through Semantic and Data-Driven Analyses
  • Amanda Swearngin advised by Amy Ko and James Fogarty at University of Washington
• Interactive Program Distillation
  • Andrew Head advised by Bjorn Hartmann and Marti Hearst at University of California, Berkeley
• The Role of Job Specialization in Software Engineering
  • Cleyton Vanut Cordeiro de Magalhães advised by Fabio Silva at Federal University of Pernambuco
• Toward Productivity Improvements in Programming Languages Through Behavioral Analytics
  • Patrick Daleiden advised by Andreas Stefik at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2019

• Identity-Based Signals and E-Mentorship to Support Engagement in Online Programming Communities
  • Denae Ford advised by Christopher Parnin at North Carolina State University
• Understanding How Software Developers Resolve Security Vulnerabilities with Static Analysis
  • Justin Smith advised by Emerson Murphy-Hill and Kathryn Stolee at North Carolina State University
• Software Developers' Work Habits and Expertise Empirical Studies on Sketching, Code Plagiarism, and Expertise Development
  • Sebastian Baltes advised by Stephan Diehl at University of Trier
• Variations Foraging
  • Sruti Ragavan advised by Margaret Burnett at Oregon State University
• Fostering Software Developer Productivity through Awareness Increase and Goal-Setting
  • Andre Meyer advised by Thomas Fritz at University of Zurich
• Job Rotation in Software Engineering: Theory and Practice
  • Ronnie Edson de Souza Santos advised by Fabio Silva at Federal University of Pernambuco
• On the Human Factors Impact of Polyglot Programming on Programmer Productivity
  • Phillip Uesbeck (Drews) advised by Andreas Stefik at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2018

• Human-Centric Tools for Navigating Code
  • Austin Z. Henley advised by Scott D. Fleming at University of Memphis
• Behavior-Informed Algorithms for Automatic Documentation Generation
  • Paige Rodeghero advised by Collin McMillan at University of Notre Dame
• Error Messages as Rational Reconstructions
  • Titus Barik advised by Emerson Murphy-Hill at North Carolina State Univerity
• An Empirical Evaluation of Feedback-Driven Software Development
  • Moritz Beller advised by Andy Zaidman and Arie van Deursen at TU Delft

2017

• A Tool (Mis)communication Theory and Adaptive Approach for Supporting Developer Tool Use
  • Brittany Johnson advised by Emerson Murphy-Hill and Sarah Heckman at North Carolina State University
• Software Developers Using Signals in Transparent Environments
  • Jason Tsay advised by James Herbsleb and Laura Dabbish at Carnegie Mellon University
• Envision: Reinventing the Integrated Development Environment
  • Dimitar Asenov advised by Peter Mueller at ETH Zurich

2016

• A Spreadsheet Model for Using Web Services and Creating Data-Driven Applications
  • Kerry Chang advised by Brad Myers at Carnegie Mellon University
• What Makes a Great Software Engineer
  • Paul Li advised by Amy Ko at University of Washington
• Information Foraging Theory as a Unifying Foundation for Software Engineering Research: Connecting the Dots
  • David Piorkowski advised by Margaret Burnett at Oregon State University

2015

• Backtracking Support in Code Editing
  • YoungSeok Yoon advised by Brad Myers at Carnegie Mellon University
• Expressing Interactivity with States and Constraints
  • Stephen Oney advised by Brad Myers at Carnegie Mellon University
• Understanding Dynamic Software Behavior with Tools for Retroactive Investigation
  • Brian Burg advised by Michael Ernst and Amy Ko at University of Washington

2014

• Supporting Interrupted Programming Tasks with Memory-Based Aids
  • Christopher Parnin advised by Spencer Rugaber at Georgia Institute of Technology
• Helping End-User Programmers Find and Fix Performance Problems in Visual Code
  • Christopher Chambers advised by Christopher Scaffidi at Oregon State University
• Leveraging Variation Management to Enhance End Users' Programming Experience
  • Sandeep Kuttal advised by Anita Sarma at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Social Aspects of Collaboration in Online Software Communities
  • Bogdan Vasilescu advised by Mark van den Brand and Alexander Serebrenik at Eindhoven University of Technology
• A Theory of Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers
  • Alberto César Cavalcanti França advised by Fabio Silva at Federal University of Pernambuco
• Innovative Behavior Model of Software Professionals
  • Cleviton Vinicius Fonseca Monteiro advised by Fabio Silva at Federal University of Pernambuco

2013

• Framework for Measuring Program Comprehension
  • Janet Siegmund advised by Gunter Saake at University of Magdeburg
• Supporting Users After Software Deployment through Selection-Based Crowdsourced Contextual Help
  • Parmit Chilana advised by Amy Ko and Jacob Wobbrock at University of Washington
• Eliciting Informal Specifications from Scientific Modelers for Evaluation and Debugging
  • Christopher Bogart advised by Margaret Burnett at Oregon State University

2012

• Answering Reachability Questions
  • Thomas LaToza advised by Brad Myers and Jonathan Aldrich at Carnegie Mellon University
• Automatically Describing Program Structure and Behavior
  • Raymond Buse advised by Westley Weimer at University of Virginia

2011

• Developer-Centric Models: Easing Access to Relevant Information in a Software Development Environment
  • Thomas Fritz advised by Gail Murphy at University of British Columbia

2010

• Information Foraging in Debugging
  • Joseph Lawrance advised by Margaret Burnett at Oregon State University
• Example-Centric Programming: Integrating Web Search into the Development Process
  • Joel Brandt advised by Scott Klemmer at Stanford University
• Integrating Natural Language and Program Structure Information to Improve Software Search and Exploration
  • Emily Hill advised by Lori Pollock at University of Delaware
• Sociotechnical Coordination and Collaboration in Open Source Software
  • Christian Bird advised by Premkumar Devanbu at University of California, Davis

2009

• Successful Strategies for Debugging Concurrent Software: An Empirical Investigation
  • Scott D. Fleming advised by Kurt Stirewalt at Michigan State University
• Programmer Friendly Refactoring Tools
  • Emerson Murphy-Hill advised by Andrew Black at Portland State University
• Topes: Enabling End-User Programmers to Validate and Reformat Data
  • Christopher Scaffidi advised by Mary Shaw at Carnegie Mellon University
• Making APIs More Usable with Improved API Designs, Documentation and Tools
  • Jeffrey Stylos advised by Brad Myers at Carnegie Mellon University

2008

• Asking and Answering Questions about the Causes of Software Behavior
  • Amy Ko advised by Brad Myers at Carnegie Mellon University
• Pragmatic Software Reuse
  • Reid Holmes advised by Robert Walker at University of Calgary

2007

• Focusing Knowledge Work with Task Context
  • Mik Kersten advised by Gail Murphy at University of British Columbia

2006

• Asking and Answering Questions During a Programming Change Task
  • Jonathan Sillito advised by Gail Murphy at University of British Columbia

2005

• Spoken Language Support for Software Development
  • Andrew Begel advised by Susan Graham at University of California, Berkeley

2004

• Project History as a Group Memory: Learning from the Past
  • Davor Cubranic advised by Gail Murphy at University of British Columbia

2003

2002

• Lightweight Structure in Text
  • Robert Miller advised by Brad Myers and David Garlan at Carnegie Mellon University
• A Programming System for Children that is Designed for Usability
  • John Pane advised by Brad Myers and David Garlan at Carnegie Mellon University
• Cognitive Support in Software Engineering Tools: A Distributed Cognition Framework
  • Andrew Walenstein advised by Binay Bhattacharya at Simon Fraser University

2001

2000

1999

• Building Whole Applications Using Only Programming-by-Demonstration
  • Richard McDaniel advised by Brad Myers and David Garlan at Carnegie Mellon University