This paper reports the results of an exploratory study thatinvestigated expert and novice debugging processes with the aim ofcontributing to a general theory of programming expertise. The methodused was verbal protocol analysis. Data was collected from sixteenprogrammers employed by the same organization. First, anexpert-novice classification of subjects was derived from informationbased on subjectsacirc; problem solving processes; the criterion ofexpertise was the subjects' ability to effectively chunk the programthey were required to debug. Then, significant differences insubjectsacirc; approaches to debugging were used to characterizeprogrammers' debugging strategies. Comparisons of these strategieswith the expert-novice classification showed programmer expertisebased on chunking ability to be strongly related to debuggingstrategy. The following strategic propositions were identified forfurther testing:1. (a) Experts use breadth-first approaches to debugging and, at thesame time, adopt a system view of the problem area.(b) Experts are proficient at chunking programs and hence displaysmooth-flowing approaches to debugging.2. (a) Novices use breadth-first approaches to debugging but aredeficient in their ability to think in system terms.(b) Novices use depth-first approaches to debugging.(c) Novices are less proficient at chunking programs and hencedisplay erratic approaches to debugging
