About me

Hi! I’m Professor Rafael de Mello, a Brazilian Software Engineering researcher and practitioner. I have over 20 years of industry experience, mainly in the financial and banking sectors. A skeptical surfer in the sea of empiricism, I’m currently trying to ride the Generative AI wave on a surfboard called evidence. In recent years, my work has focused on bridging the gap between Software Engineering research and practice. My research group (Iter) is a pioneer in applying social psychology theories—such as social representations and social identity—to Software Engineering. My publications include award-winning papers in venues such as ICSE, FSE, and ESEM. I also recognize myself as a recovering “Reviewer 2,” striving to provide constructive and empathetic feedback. :)

Iter Resarch Group

Established in 2022, the Iter Research Group is committed to paving solid paths for Software Engineering by establishing foundations grounded in scientific evidence and building a sustainable bridge between research and practice. In pursuit of this mission, the group’s objectives are to contribute to Evidence-Based Software Engineering practice, foster continuous and purposeful innovation, and promote the maturation of Software Engineering research. These objectives are guided by a set of core values—transparency, autonomy, purposeful innovation, continuous learning, and collaboration—which shape the group’s research activities and interactions. Through this integrated approach, Iter seeks to foster rigorous, relevant, and impactful scientific inquiry while promoting the responsible advancement of knowledge and its meaningful translation into practice.

News

September 2026

Best CTD-ES Doctoral Thesis!

The Doctoral Thesis of João Lucas Correa, titled "Exploring Conversational Agents for Developer Guidance on Software Dependability Issues", co-supervised with prof. Alessandro Garcia (PUC-Rio), received the Best Doctoral Thesis recognition at CBSOFT/CTD-ES 2026.

Distinguished Paper at ISE 2026

The paper presented at CBSOFT/ISE 2026, entitled "Uma Abordagem Multiagente para Geração de Requisitos com Base em Personas", was honored as a Distinguished Paper.

April 2026

New Papers Released!

Interested in applying Focus Groups in your research? Take a look at our paper published in IST: Design, execution, and contextual factors shaping the benefits and drawbacks of focus groups in software engineering .

Looking for evidence-based GenAI solutions for software quality? Take a look at our paper published in SQJ: Generative AI solutions for software quality: Assessing industrial readiness .

November 2025

Distinguished Paper at SBQS 2025

The paper authored by André Gheventer and Patrícia Gurgel, "Aprendizados do Uso de IA Generativa na Engenharia e Garantia de Qualidade de Sistemas Web para Saúde", received a Distinguished Paper award at SBQS 2025.

October 2025

Paper Accepted at ICSE 2026 Research Track

The paper "A Comparison of Conversational Models and Humans in Answering Technical Questions: the Firefox Case", stemming from João Lucas Corrêa’s doctoral research, has been accepted to ICSE 2026 Research Track .

September 2025

Keynote at ISSRE 2025

Honored to serve as Keynote Speaker at the 2nd International Workshop on Human Factors for Software Dependability (ISSRE 2025), presenting the keynote "Hey ChatGPT, are you ready to support qualitative research in software engineering?"

Distinguished Paper at CBSOFT/SAST 2025

The paper "A Journey of Functional Test Evolution in the Public Sector", presented at CBSOFT/SAST 2025 , was recognized as a Distinguished Paper.

Recent Publications

Correia, J., Coutinho, D., Castelluccio, M., Barbosa, C., de Mello, R., Sarma, A., ... & Steinmacher, I. (2025). A Comparison of Conversational Models and Humans in Answering Technical Questions: the Firefox Case. arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.21933.
Cerqueira, D. A., de Mello, R. M., da Costa, J. S., & Travassos, G. H. (2025). Experimental evaluation of a checklist-based inspection technique to verify the compliance of software systems with the Brazilian General Data Protection Law. Empirical Software Engineering, 30(5), 122. Springer US.
de Souza, B. P., Motta, R. C., da Costa, J. S., Nunes, E., Pinto, G. R. B., & de Mello, R. M. (2025, September). A Journey of Functional Test Evolution in the Public Sector. In Simpósio Brasileiro de Testes de Software Sistemático e Automatizado (SAST) (pp. 147-149). SBC.
de Souza, A. N., dos Santos, F., dos Santos, L., Belém, P. H. A., da Silva, S. T. F., Vivacqua, A. S., & de Mello, R. (2024). Investigating the Perception of Feedback in Software Development Teams: An Initial Study. iSys-Brazilian Journal of Information Systems, 17(1), 10-1.
Lima, R., Souza, J., Fonseca, B., Teixeira, L., Mello, R., Ribeiro, M., Gheyi, R., & Garcia, A. (2024). Investigating the social representations of harmful code. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development, 12(1), 4–1.
Uchôa, A., de Mello, R., Souza, J., Teixeira, L., Fonseca, B., & Garcia, A. (2024). Towards effective gamification of existing systems: method and experience report. Software Quality Journal, 32(4), 1683-1716.
Bibiano, A. C., Coutinho, D., Uchôa, A., Assunçao, W. K., Garcia, A., de Mello, R., ... & Ribeiro, M. (2024, October). Enhancing Recommendations of Composite Refactorings based on the Practice. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM) (pp. 83-93). IEEE.
Correia, J., Coutinho, D., Garcia, A., de Mello, R., Barbosa, C., Oliveira, A., ... & Arriel, J. (2024, October). On the Investigation of Exception Pull Request Characteristics: Exploring the Apache Ecosystem. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM) (pp. 143-153). IEEE.
Esteves, A. C., de Moraes, L. C., & de Mello, R. M. (2024, July). Investigando a Prática de Salas de Guerra na Solução de Problemas Críticos em Sistemas de Software. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES) (pp. 35-45). SBC.
Galeno, L., Mota, W., & de Mello, R. (2024, July). Investigating the Participation of Female Software Developers in Retrospective Meetings. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES) (pp. 46-57). SBC.
Zandoná, D., Kockelke, F., & de Mello, R. (2024, July). Investigating Computer Science Students’ Identification with the Course and Their Perceptions of the Content Taught. In Workshop sobre Educação em Computação (WEI) (pp. 646-657). SBC.
Barroso, B., da Silva, L., & de Mello, R. (2024, July). Caracterizando Condutores de Carga Cognitiva na Prática de Testes Unitários. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES) (pp. 70-81). SBC.
Oliveira, A., Correia, J., Assunção, W. K., Pereira, J. A., de Mello, R., Coutinho, D., ... & Garcia, A. (2024). Understanding developers’ discussions and perceptions on non-functional requirements: The case of the Spring ecosystem. Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering, 1(FSE), 517-538.
de Paiva, B. D., Esteves, A. C., de Mello, R. M., & Travassos, G. H. (2024, May). Resultados Iniciais de uma Rapid Review sobre Tecnologias de Apoio à Engenharia de Sistemas de Software Quântico. In Congresso Ibero-Americano em Engenharia de Software (CIbSE) (pp. 372-379). SBC.
Belém, P. H. A., Glória, J. P. B., de Souza, A. N., Barizon, C., de Mello, R. M., & Vivacqua, A. S. (2024, April). A colaboração em reuniões remotas: uma análise sobre o uso da câmera e a produtividade. In Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas Colaborativos (SBSC) (pp. 124-137). SBC.
Lima, R., Souza, J., Fonseca, B., Teixeira, L., Mello, R., Ribeiro, M., ... & Garcia, A. (2024). Investigating the Social Representations of Harmful Code. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development, 12(1), 4-1.
Carvalho, L., Colanzi, T. E., Assuncao, W. K., Garcia, A., Pereira, J. A., Kalinowski, M., ... & Lucena, C. (2024). On the Usefulness of Automatically Generated Microservice Architectures. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 50(03), 651-667.
Bastos, J. A. D., de Mello, R. M., & Garcia, A. F. (2024). Colloquy: Evidence-Based Method for Supporting the Design of Conversational APIs. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development, 12(1), 18-1.
Santos, L., Santos, F., Parreira, R., & de Mello, R. (2023, December). Investigating the developer’s perceptions of unit testing and its practice. In Escola Regional de Engenharia de Software (ERES) (pp. 238-247). SBC.
Belém, P., De Mello, R., Vivacqua, A. S., & Neves De Souza, A. (2023, September). Investigating the cognitive load drivers of software evolution activities. In Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (pp. 342-347).
Bastos, J., Mello, R., & Garcia, A. (2023, September). On the Support for Designing a Conversational Software API: An Action Research Study: An Action Research Study. In Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES) (pp. 57-66). SBC.
de Souza, A., dos Santos, F., dos Santos, L., Belém, P., da Silva, S., Vivacqua, A., & de Mello, R. (2023, August). Investigando a percepção de feedback em times de desenvolvimento de software: Um estudo inicial. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES) (pp. 91-100). SBC.
Cerqueira, D. A., de Mello, R. M., & Travassos, G. H. (2023, April). Um checklist para inspeção de privacidade e proteção de dados pessoais em artefatos de software. In Congresso Ibero-Americano em Engenharia de Software (CIbSE) (pp. 206-213). SBC.