Behind the Hot Fix: Demystifying Hot Fixing Industrial Practices at Zühlke and Beyond

Rushing a hot fix and having it fail can severely damage a software company’s reputation, impacting user satisfaction and future business opportunities. Ensuring best practices for emergency bug handling is critical, yet the process remains elusive in the industry. We are the first to conduct a study to gain insights on hot fixing industrial practices. We surveyed 24 employees of Zühlke, a midsized IT company specializing in providing software engineering services to clients from different domains. We also surveyed 136 software practitioners from a wide range of companies, roles, and geographical areas through an online questionnaire, most having over 10 years of professional experience. Among others, we found that terminology around hot fixing is inconsistent; 56.7% of questionnaire participants stated automated tooling exists for hot fix deployment, but only 25% responded that some tooling is available for hot fix generation; Zühlke employees reported significantly faster hot fix resolution times, attributed to their strong emphasis on agile practices, averaging hours vs. days in other companies. Based on our study’s results we offer key recommendations for both software engineering researchers and industry practitioners.

In International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering