Investigating the Social Representations of Harmful Code

Abstract Context. Harmful Code are code elements that harm the software. Several characteristics can cause a code be Harmful to the Software. That may result from plenty of characteristics of the source code and external issues. By example, one might associate Harmful Code with the introduction of bugs, architecture degradation, and hard comprehension. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on which are the code issues that are considered harmful from the perspective of the community of software developers. Goal. In this work, we investigate the social representations of Harmful Code among a community of software developers composed of Brazilian postgraduate students and professionals from the industry. Method. We conducted free association tasks with members from this community for characterizing what comes to their minds when they think about Harmful Code. Then, we compiled a set of associations that compose the social representations of Harmful Code. Results. We found that the investigated community strongly associates Harmful Code with a core set of undesirable characteristics of the source code, such as bugs and different types of smells. Based on these findings, we discussed each of them to try to understand why those characteristics happen. Conclusion. Our study reveals the main characteristics of Harmful Code by a community of developers, those characteristics can guide researchers on future works to better understand Harmful Code.