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Dr Amjed Tahir staff profile picture

Contact details +6469519358

Dr Amjed Tahir PhD, SI^NZ

Senior Lecturer

Doctoral Supervisor
School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences

Most of my research is empirical in nature, and I am a big supporter of the open science initiative. Most of my research uses open data, contributes publicly accessible data, and ensures that our research software is accessible as open source. Read more .  

 

 

I undertake research in empirical software engineering, with a special interest in software (source code) quality and maintenance and in software testing. I am also interested in open-source software and how to improve the quality of such systems. Please visit our Software Engineering and Analytics Group page for more information about our research activities.

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Professional

Contact details

  • Location: 3.29, Science Tower B
    Campus: Manawatu

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy - University of Otago (2016)

Fellowships and Memberships

  • Member, Software Innovation New Zealand (Member) (2017)

Prizes and Awards

  • College of Science Research Award (Early Career) - Ƶ (2023)
  • Distinguished Reviewer Award - IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023) (2023)
  • Distinguished Paper Award - IEEE TCSE - International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2021) (2021)
  • Distinguished Reviewer Award - IEEE International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2021) (2021)
  • Best Paper Award - The 22nd International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2018) (2018)
  • The Distinguished Artifact award at ECOOP 2017 - European Conference on Object Oriented Programming (ECOOP) (2017)

Research Expertise

Research Interests

I am interested in several areas of Empirical Software Engineering including (but not limited to): software testing, software maintenance, reengineering and evolution, data analytics (through mining software repertories), and other software quality topics. My current research focuses on understanding software systems, and more precisely, understanding the quality of tests written by developers. I'm also studying fault and change prediction models. 

For prospective postgraduate students: If you are interested in postgraduate studies (Master, PhD) in software engineering and would like to join us at Massey, please send me an email with details of your proposed research idea and your previous qualifications/experience. Please visit  for information about my current postgraduate students

I am currently working on the following active projects (with students and collaborators): 

1) understanding sources of non-deterministic behaviour of software tests (i.e., test flakiness)

2) assessing the reliability of existing bug prediction models and their applicability in real life projects.

3) studying the real impact of code smells and anti-patterns in real software development. 

4) quantifying the sources of unsoundness in static program analysis.

5) implementing custom static analysis to detect DoS vulnerabilities in composite data structures.

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Computer Software (080300): Information And Computing Sciences (080000): Programming Languages (080308): Software Engineering (080309)

Research Projects

Completed Projects

Project Title: NSC - Proofing Code Reuse: Detecting Errors in Publicly Available Software

Date Range: 2021 - 2022

Funding Body: University of Otago

Project Team:

Project Title: NSC - Novel approach to detect and predict tests with non-deterministic behaviour

This project aims to understand the causes of test flakiness, provide empirical evidence of new patterns of flaky tests and their classifications, and develop a novel technique that is able to identify and predict flaky tests with a high-level of accuracy and scalable to large programs
Read Project Description Hide Project Description

Date Range: 2021 - 2023

Funding Body: Callaghan Innovation

Project Team:

Project Title: Towards better and more reliable software bugs prediction

Date Range: 2018 - 2018

Funding Body: Ƶ

Project Team:

Project Title: NSC - Closing the gaps in Static Program Analysis

There is a recent increase in awareness that more research on soundness of static code analysis is needed. Real-world programming languages are full of features that have been designed to boost programmer productivity, but are notoriously difficult to capture by existing static analyses (due to their dynamic nature). As a result, most static code analyses are unsound. This project aims at addressing the following questions: (1) Can we quantify the unsoundness of existing static analyses? (2) Which features in modern programs cause unsoundness, and to what extent? (3) Which methods exist or can be invented to precisely model features causing unsoundness?
Read Project Description Hide Project Description

Date Range: 2017 - 2019

Funding Body: Callaghan Innovation

Project Team:

Research Outputs

Journal

Aktar, MS., Liang, P., Waseem, M., Tahir, A., Ahmad, A., Zhang, B., . . . Li, Z. (2025). Architecture decisions in quantum software systems: An empirical study on Stack Exchange and GitHub. Information and Software Technology. 177
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Rasheed, S., Dietrich, J., Hashemi, N., & Zhang, L. (2023). Test flakiness’ causes, detection, impact and responses: A multivocal review. Journal of Systems and Software. 206
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Ndukwe, IG., Licorish, SA., Tahir, A., & MacDonell, SG. (2023). How have views on Software Quality differed over time? Research and practice viewpoints. Journal of Systems and Software. 195
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Han, X., Tahir, A., Liang, P., Counsell, S., Blincoe, K., Li, B., . . . Luo, Y. (2022). Code smells detection via modern code review: a study of the OpenStack and Qt communities. Empirical Software Engineering. 27(6)
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Bennin, KE., Tahir, A., MacDonell, SG., & Börstler, J. (2022). An empirical study on the effectiveness of data resampling approaches for cross-project software defect prediction. IET Software. 16(2), 185-199
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Licorish, SA., Galster, M., Kapitsaki, GM., & Tahir, A. (2022). Understanding students’ software development projects: Effort, performance, satisfaction, skills and their relation to the adequacy of outcomes developed. Journal of Systems and Software. 186
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., Xiao, X., & MacDonell, SG. (2021). Does class size matter? An in-depth assessment of the effect of class size in software defect prediction. Empirical Software Engineering. 26(5)
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
HAYAKAWA, T., TSUNODA, M., TODA, K., NAKASAI, K., TAHIR, A., BENNIN, KE., . . . MATSUMOTO, K. (2021). A novel approach to address external validity issues in fault prediction using bandit algorithms. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems. E104D(2), 327-331
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Hayakawa, T., Tsunoda, M., Toda, K., Nakasai, K., Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., . . . Matsumoto, K. (2021). A Novel Approach to Address External Validity Issues in Fault Prediction Using Bandit Algorithms. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems. E104.D(2), 327-331 Retrieved from https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/transinf/E104.D/2/E104.D_2020EDL8098/_article
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, AR., Neethirajan, S., Jayas, DS., Shahin, MA., Symons, SJ., & White, NDG. (2007). Evaluation of the effect of moisture content on cereal grains by digital image analysis. Food Research International. 40(9), 1140-1145
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Dietrich, J., Counsell, S., Licorish, S., & Yamashita, A. (2020). A large scale study on how developers discuss code smells and anti-pattern in Stack Exchange sites. Information and Software Technology. 125
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Meldrum, S., Savarimuthu, BTR., Licorish, S., Tahir, AAA., Bosu, M., & Jayakaran, P. (2017). Is knee pain information on YouTube videos perceived to be helpful? An analysis of user comments and implications for dissemination on social media. Digital Health. 3, 1-18
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Danesh, AS., Ahmad, R., Saybani, MR., & Tahir, A. (2012). Companies approaches in software release planning- Based on multiple case studies. Journal of Software. 7(2), 471-478
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Ahmad, R., & Kasirun, ZM. (2010). Maintainability dynamic metrics data collection based on aspect-oriented technology. Malaysian Journal of Computer Science. 23(3), 177-194
[Journal article]Authored by: Tahir, A.

Conference

Majdinasab, V., Bishop, MJ., Rasheed, S., Moradidakhel, A., Tahir, A., & Khomh, F.Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Generated Code-A Targeted Replication Ƶ. Proceedings - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2024. (pp. 435 - 444).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Counsell, S., Swift, S., & Tahir, A.An '80-20' Approach to the Ƶ of Coupling. Proceedings - 2023 49th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA 2023. (pp. 219 - 222).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Yamasaki, Y., Fedorov, N., Tsunoda, M., Monden, A., Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., . . . Nakasai, K.Software Defect Prediction by Online Learning Considering Defect Overlooking. Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 34th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshop, ISSREW 2023. (pp. 43 - 44).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Yu, J., Fu, L., Liang, P., Tahir, A., & Shahin, M.Security Defect Detection via Code Review: A Ƶ of the OpenStack and Qt Communities. International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. 1949-3770.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Rasheed, S., Dietrich, J., & Tahir, A.On the Effect of Instrumentation on Test Flakiness. Proceedings - 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automation of Software Test, AST 2023. (pp. 123 - 127).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Kudo, T., Tsunoda, M., Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., Toda, K., Nakasai, K., . . . Matsumoto, K.Preliminary Analysis of Review Method Selection Based on Bandit Algorithms. Proceedings - Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, APSEC. (pp. 492 - 496). 1530-1362.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Dietrich, J., Rasheed, S., & Tahir, A.Flaky Test Sanitisation via On-The-Fly Assumption Inference for Tests with Network Dependencies. Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 22nd International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation, SCAM 2022. (pp. 264 - 275).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Hashemi, N., Tahir, A., & Rasheed, S.An Empirical Ƶ of Flaky Tests in JavaScript. Proceedings - 2022 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2022. (pp. 24 - 34).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tabo, T., Kudo, T., Tsunoda, M., Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., Toda, K., . . . Monden, A.Clone Detection Method Selection Based on Bandit Algorithm: a Preliminary Analysis. Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 16th International Workshop on Software Clones, IWSC 2022. (pp. 53 - 54).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Fu, L., Liang, P., Rasheed, Z., Li, Z., Tahir, A., & Han, X.Potential Technical Debt and Its Resolution in Code Reviews: An Exploratory Ƶ of the OpenStack and Qt Communities. International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. (pp. 216 - 226). 1949-3770.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tsunoda, M., Monden, A., Toda, K., Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., Nakasai, K., . . . Matsumoto, K.Using Bandit Algorithms for Selecting Feature Reduction Techniques in Software Defect Prediction. Proceedings - 2022 Mining Software Repositories Conference, MSR 2022. (pp. 670 - 681).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Sui, L., Rasheed, S., Tahir, A., & Dietrich, J.A Ƶ of Single Statement Bugs Involving Dynamic Language Features. IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension. (pp. 494 - 498).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Asano, T., Tsunoda, M., Toda, K., Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., Nakasai, K., . . . Matsumoto, K.Using Bandit Algorithms for Project Selection in Cross-Project Defect Prediction. Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2021. (pp. 649 - 653).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Rasheed, S., Dietrich, J., & Tahir, A.Caught in the Web: DoS Vulnerabilities in Parsers for Structured Data. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). (pp. 67 - 85). 0302-9743.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Counsell, S., Swift, S., & Tahir, A.Where the Bugs are: A Quasi-replication Ƶ of the Effect of Inheritance Depth and Width in Java Systems. Communications in Computer and Information Science. (pp. 459 - 472). 1865-0929.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Han, X., Tahir, A., Liang, P., Counsell, S., & Luo, Y.Understanding Code Smell Detection via Code Review: A Ƶ of the OpenStack Community. IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension. (pp. 323 - 334).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Stringer, J., Tahir, A., Blincoe, K., & Dietrich, J.Technical lag of dependencies in major package managers. Proceedings - Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, APSEC. (pp. 228 - 237). 1530-1362.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Shcherban, S., Liang, P., Tahir, A., & Li, X.Automatic identification of code smell discussions on stack overflow: A preliminary investigation. International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. 1949-3770.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Rodina, A., Amjed, T., & Zarinah, MK.An empirical assessment of the use of different communication modes for requirement elicitation and negotiation using students as a subject. 2012 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Informatics, ISCI 2012. (pp. 70 - 74).
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, AR., Neethirajan, S., Jayas, DS., & Paliwal, J.Assessment of machine vision algorithm for quantification of foreign matter in wheat. 2006 ASABE Annual International Meeting.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Shahin, MA., Symons, SJ., Schepdael, LV., & Tahir, AR.Three dimensional seed shape and size measurement with orthogonal cameras. 2006 ASABE Annual International Meeting.
[Conference]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Sui, L., Dietrich, J., Tahir, A., & Fourtounis, G. (2020). On the recall of static call graph construction in practice. Proceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering. (pp. 1049 - 1060).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Rasheed, S., Dietrich, J., & Tahir, A. (2019). Laughter in the wild: A study into DoS vulnerabilities in YAML. Proceedings - 2019 18th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications/13th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering, TrustCom/BigDataSE 2019. (pp. 342 - 349).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Dietrich, J., Pearce, D., Stringer, J., Tahir, A., & Blincoe, K. (2019). Dependency versioning in the wild. IEEE International Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories. Vol. 2019-May (pp. 349 - 359).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Yukizawa, U., Tsunoda, M., & Tahir, A. (2019). Please Help A Preliminary Ƶ on the Effect of Social Proof and Legitimization of Paltry Contributions in Donations to OSS. SANER 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE 26th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering. (pp. 609 - 613).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Bennin, KE., Macdonell, SG., & Marsland, S. (2018). Revisiting the size effect in software fault prediction models. International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement.
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Yamashita, A., Licorish, S., Dietrich, J., & Counsell, S. (2018). Can you tell me if it smells? A study on how developers discuss code smells and anti-patterns in Stack Overflow. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. Vol. Part F137700
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Sui, L., Dietrich, J., Emery, M., Rasheed, S., & Tahir, A. (2018). On the Soundness of Call Graph Construction in the Presence of Dynamic Language Features - A Benchmark and Tool Evaluation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Vol. 11275 LNCS (pp. 69 - 88).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Sui, L., DIetrich, J., & Tahir, A. (2017). On the Use of Mined Stack Traces to Improve the Soundness of Statically Constructed Call Graphs. Proceedings - Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, APSEC. Vol. 2017-December (pp. 672 - 676).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Licorish, SA., & MacDonell, SG. (2017). Feature Evolution and Reuse - An Exploratory Ƶ of Eclipse. Proceedings - Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, APSEC. Vol. 2017-December (pp. 582 - 587).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Counsell, S., Hall, T., Shippey, T., Bowes, D., Tahir, A., & MacDonell, S. (2017). Assert use and defectiveness in industrial code. Proceedings - 2017 IEEE 28th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops, ISSREW 2017. (pp. 20 - 23).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Dietrich, J., Sui, L., Rasheed, S., & Tahir, A. (2017). On the construction of soundness oracles. SOAP 2017 - Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on State of the Art in Program Analysis, co-located with PLDI 2017. (pp. 37 - 42).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Dietrich, J., Jezek, K., Rasheed, S., Tahir, A., & Potanin, A. (2017). Evil pickles: DoS attacks based on object-graph engineering. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs. Vol. 74 (pp. 101 - 1032).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Counsell, S., & MacDonell, SG. (2016). An empirical study into the relationship between class features and test smells. 2016 23RD ASIA-PACIFIC SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CONFERENCE (APSEC 2016). (pp. 137 - 144).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Counsell, S., & MacDonell, SG. (2016). An Empirical Ƶ into the Relationship between Class Features and Test Smells. Proceedings - Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, APSEC. Vol. 0 (pp. 137 - 144).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Yamashita, A., Moonen, L., Mens, T., & Tahir, A. (2016). Report on the First International Workshop on Technical Debt Analytics (TDA 2016). CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Vol. 1771 (pp. 58 - 63).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Licorish, SA., Tahir, A., Bosu, MF., & MacDonell, SG. (2015). On satisfying the android OS community: User feedback still central to developers' portfolios. Proceedings - 2015 24th Australasian Software Engineering Conference, ASWEC 2015. (pp. 78 - 87).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., & MacDonell, SG. (2015). Combining dynamic analysis and visualization to explore the distribution of unit test suites. International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Metrics, WETSoM. Vol. 2015-August (pp. 21 - 30).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., MacDonell, SG., & Buchan, J. (2014). Understanding class-level testability through dynamic analysis. ENASE 2014 - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering. (pp. 38 - 47).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., & MacDonell, SG. (2012). A systematic mapping study on dynamic metrics and software quality. IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance, ICSM. (pp. 326 - 335).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., Ahmad, R., & Mohd Kasirun, Z. (2010). An empirical study on the use of standards and procedures in software development projects. ICSTE 2010 - 2010 2nd International Conference on Software Technology and Engineering, Proceedings. Vol. 1
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., & Ahmad, R. (2010). Requirement engineering practices - An empirical study. 2010 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Software Engineering, CiSE 2010.
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.
Tahir, A., & Ahmad, R. (2010). An AOP-based approach for collecting software maintainability dynamic metrics. 2nd International Conference on Computer Research and Development, ICCRD 2010. (pp. 168 - 172).
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Tahir, A.

Teaching and Supervision

Teaching Statement

I am the Software Engineering Subject Leaser (Major Leader) at Ƶ. I mostly teach the following courses : 

159251 Software Engineering Design and Construction

159356 Software Engineering Capstone Project

Summary of Doctoral Supervision

Position Current Completed
Main Supervisor 1 1
Co-supervisor 0 1

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • Negar Hashemi - Doctor of Philosophy
    Identifying and mitigating flaky tests in dynamically typed languages

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • 2021 - Li Sui - Doctor of Philosophy
    An investigation into the unsoundness of static program analysis

Co-supervisor of:

  • 2021 - Shawn Rasheed - Doctor of Philosophy
    Security Analyses for Detecting Deserialisation Vulnerabilities

Media and Links

Other Links