LLM Contribution Summarization in Software Projects

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ferrao, Rafael Corsi, de Miranda, Fabio Roberto, Soler, Diego Pavan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ferrao, Rafael Corsi
de Miranda, Fabio Roberto
Soler, Diego Pavan
author_facet Ferrao, Rafael Corsi
de Miranda, Fabio Roberto
Soler, Diego Pavan
contents This full paper in innovative practice provides an automated tool to summarize individual code contributions in project-based courses with external clients. Real industry projects offer valuable learning opportunities by immersing students in authentic problems defined by external clients. However, the open-ended and highly variable scope of these projects makes it challenging for instructors and teaching assistants to provide timely and detailed feedback. This paper addresses the need for an automated and objective approach to evaluate individual contributions within team projects. In this paper, we present a tool that leverages a large language model (LLM) to automatically summarize code contributions extracted from version control repositories. The tool preprocesses and structures repository data, and uses PyDriller to isolate individual contributions. Its uniqueness lies in the combination of LLM prompt engineering with automated repository analysis, thus reducing the manual grading burden while providing regular and informative updates. The tool was assessed over two semesters during a three-week, full-time software development sprint involving 65 students. Weekly summaries were provided to teams, and both student and faculty feedback indicated the tool's overall usefulness in informing grading and guidance. The tool reports, in large proportion, activities that were in fact performed by the student, with some failure to detect students' contribution. The summaries were considered by the instructors as a useful potential tool to keep up with the projects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_17710
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle LLM Contribution Summarization in Software Projects
Ferrao, Rafael Corsi
de Miranda, Fabio Roberto
Soler, Diego Pavan
Software Engineering
Computers and Society
This full paper in innovative practice provides an automated tool to summarize individual code contributions in project-based courses with external clients. Real industry projects offer valuable learning opportunities by immersing students in authentic problems defined by external clients. However, the open-ended and highly variable scope of these projects makes it challenging for instructors and teaching assistants to provide timely and detailed feedback. This paper addresses the need for an automated and objective approach to evaluate individual contributions within team projects. In this paper, we present a tool that leverages a large language model (LLM) to automatically summarize code contributions extracted from version control repositories. The tool preprocesses and structures repository data, and uses PyDriller to isolate individual contributions. Its uniqueness lies in the combination of LLM prompt engineering with automated repository analysis, thus reducing the manual grading burden while providing regular and informative updates. The tool was assessed over two semesters during a three-week, full-time software development sprint involving 65 students. Weekly summaries were provided to teams, and both student and faculty feedback indicated the tool's overall usefulness in informing grading and guidance. The tool reports, in large proportion, activities that were in fact performed by the student, with some failure to detect students' contribution. The summaries were considered by the instructors as a useful potential tool to keep up with the projects.
title LLM Contribution Summarization in Software Projects
topic Software Engineering
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17710