Immersive Software Archaeology: Collaborative Exploration and Note Taking in Virtual Reality

Understanding software systems is a vital task, often undertaken by teams of engineers, for the development and maintenance of systems. Collaborative software visualization tools are essential in this context, yet they are limited. Existing tools, particularly in virtual reality, allow exploration but lack the crucial feature of note-taking, which is a significant limitation.

We introduce Immersive Software Archaeology (ISA), a virtual reality tool that enables engineering teams to collaboratively explore and comprehend software systems. Unique to ISA, it facilitates note-taking during exploration with virtual multimedia whiteboards that support freehand diagramming, audio recordings, and VR screenshots. Notes taken on these whiteboards are synchronized with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), providing easy access to the results of a VR exploration while performing changes to the system’s source code.