Recovering from a Decade: A Systematic Mapping of Information Retrieval Approaches to Software Traceability

Engineers in large-scale software development have to manage large amounts of information, spread across many artifacts. Several researchers have proposed expressing retrieval of trace links among artifacts, i.e. trace recovery, as an Information Retrieval (IR) problem. The objective of this study is to produce a map of work on IR-based trace recovery, with a particular focus on previous evaluations and strength of evidence. We conducted a systematic mapping of IR-based trace recovery. Of the 79 publications classified, a majority applied algebraic IR models. While a set of studies on students indicate that IR-based trace recovery tools support certain work tasks, most previous studies do not go beyond reporting precision and recall of candidate trace links from evaluations using datasets containing less than 500 artifacts. Our review identified a need of industrial case studies. Furthermore, we conclude that the overall quality of reporting should be improved regarding both context and tool details, measures reported, and use of IR terminology. Finally, based on our empirical findings, we present suggestions on how to advance research on IR-based trace recovery

Traceability Links Recovery among Requirements and BPMN models

Tesis por compendio[EN] Throughout the pages of this document, I present the results of the research that was carried out in the context of my PhD studies. During the aforementioned research, I studied the process of Traceability Links Recovery between natural language requirements and industrial software models. More precisely, due to their popularity and extensive usage, I studied the process of Traceability Links Recovery between natural language requirements and Business Process Models, also known as BPMN models. In order to carry out the research, I focused my work on two main objectives: (1) the development of the Traceability Links Recovery techniques between natural language requirements and BPMN models, and (2) the validation and analysis of the results obtained by the developed techniques in industrial domain case studies. The results of the research have been redacted and published in forums, conferences, and journals specialized in the topics and context of the research. This thesis document introduces the topics, context, and objectives of the research, presents the academic publications that have been published as a result of the work, and then discusses the outcomes of the investigation.[ES] A través de las páginas de este documento, presento los resultados de la investigación realizada en el contexto de mis estudios de doctorado. Durante la investigación, he estudiado el proceso de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y modelos de software industriales. Más concretamente, debido a su popularidad y uso extensivo, he estudiado el proceso de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y Modelos de Procesos de Negocio, también conocidos como modelos BPMN. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación, mi trabajo se ha centrado en dos objetivos principales: (1) desarrollo de técnicas de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y modelos BPMN, y (2) validación y análisis de los resultados obtenidos por las técnicas desarrolladas en casos de estudio de dominios industriales. Los resultados de la investigación han sido redactados y publicados en foros, conferencias y revistas especializadas en los temas y contexto de la investigación. Esta tesis introduce los temas, contexto y objetivos de la investigación, presenta las publicaciones académicas que han sido publicadas como resultado del trabajo, y expone los resultados de la investigación.[CA] A través de les pàgines d'aquest document, presente els resultats de la investigació realitzada en el context dels meus estudis de doctorat. Durant la investigació, he estudiat el procés de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i models de programari industrials. Més concretament, a causa de la seua popularitat i ús extensiu, he estudiat el procés de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i Models de Processos de Negoci, també coneguts com a models BPMN. Per a dur a terme aquesta investigació, el meu treball s'ha centrat en dos objectius principals: (1) desenvolupament de tècniques de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i models BPMN, i (2) validació i anàlisi dels resultats obtinguts per les tècniques desenvolupades en casos d'estudi de dominis industrials. Els resultats de la investigació han sigut redactats i publicats en fòrums, conferències i revistes especialitzades en els temes i context de la investigació. Aquesta tesi introdueix els temes, context i objectius de la investigació, presenta les publicacions acadèmiques que han sigut publicades com a resultat del treball, i exposa els resultats de la investigació.Lapeña Martí, R. (2020). Traceability Links Recovery among Requirements and BPMN models [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/149391TESISCompendi

Integration Features in the Development of Software Product Line Architecture

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on August 17, 2015Thesis advisor: Yongjie ZhengVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 33-36)Thesis (M.S.)--School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2015Software product line architecture (PLA) is one of the most promising applications of software architecture. This paper presents a pragmatic PLA development approach with tool support. It addresses two existing issues of PLA development, the difficulty of relating product line features to PLA, and the overhead of manually creating and maintaining variation points in PLA. The approach is implemented and integrated in ArchStudio, an Eclipse-based architecture development toolset. The developed tool supports (1) side-by-side integrated development of features, PLA, and their relationships, (2) automatic variability modeling in PLA, and (3) derivation of architecture instances from the PLA model. To evaluate the scalability and effectiveness of the approach, I have used the work done by Adam Carter and Jeffrey Lanning [30] as a case study using the developed tool to create a feature-integrated architecture for the Apache Solr software system - a Java-based enterprise search server used in the Cerner Corporation.Introduction -- Background and related work -- Tools developed -- Implementation -- Results and evaluation -- Conclusion, availability, and future wor

Recovering Trace Links Between Software Documentation And Code

Introduction Software development involves creating various artifacts at different levels of abstraction and establishing relationships between them is essential. Traceability link recovery (TLR) automates this process, enhancing software quality by aiding tasks like maintenance and evolution. However, automating TLR is challenging due to semantic gaps resulting from different levels of abstraction. While automated TLR approaches exist for requirements and code, architecture documentation lacks tailored solutions, hindering the preservation of architecture knowledge and design decisions. Methods This paper presents our approach TransArC for TLR between architecture documentation and code, using componentbased architecture models as intermediate artifacts to bridge the semantic gap. We create transitive trace links by combining the existing approach ArDoCo for linking architecture documentation to models with our novel approach ArCoTL for linking architecture models to code. Results We evaluate our approaches with five open-source projects, comparing our results to baseline approaches. The model-to-code TLR approach achieves an average F1-score of 0.98, while the documentation-to-code TLR approach achieves a promising average F1-score of 0.82, significantly outperforming baselines. Conclusion Combining two specialized approaches with an intermediate artifact shows promise for bridging the semantic gap. In future research, we will explore further possibilities for such transitive approaches

Recovering Trace Links Between Software Documentation And Code

Introduction Software development involves creating various artifacts at different levels of abstraction and establishing relationships between them is essential. Traceability link recovery (TLR) automates this process, enhancing software quality by aiding tasks like maintenance and evolution. However, automating TLR is challenging due to semantic gaps resulting from different levels of abstraction. While automated TLR approaches exist for requirements and code, architecture documentation lacks tailored solutions, hindering the preservation of architecture knowledge and design decisions. Methods This paper presents our approach TransArC for TLR between architecture documentation and code, using componentbased architecture models as intermediate artifacts to bridge the semantic gap. We create transitive trace links by combining the existing approach ArDoCo for linking architecture documentation to models with our novel approach ArCoTL for linking architecture models to code. Results We evaluate our approaches with five open-source projects, comparing our results to baseline approaches. The model-to-code TLR approach achieves an average F1-score of 0.98, while the documentation-to-code TLR approach achieves a promising average F1-score of 0.82, significantly outperforming baselines. Conclusion Combining two specialized approaches with an intermediate artifact shows promise for bridging the semantic gap. In future research, we will explore further possibilities for such transitive approaches