11,164 research outputs found
Can Network Analysis Techniques help to Predict Design Dependencies? An Initial Study
The degree of dependencies among the modules of a software system is a key
attribute to characterize its design structure and its ability to evolve over
time. Several design problems are often correlated with undesired dependencies
among modules. Being able to anticipate those problems is important for
developers, so they can plan early for maintenance and refactoring efforts.
However, existing tools are limited to detecting undesired dependencies once
they appeared in the system. In this work, we investigate whether module
dependencies can be predicted (before they actually appear). Since the module
structure can be regarded as a network, i.e, a dependency graph, we leverage on
network features to analyze the dynamics of such a structure. In particular, we
apply link prediction techniques for this task. We conducted an evaluation on
two Java projects across several versions, using link prediction and machine
learning techniques, and assessed their performance for identifying new
dependencies from a project version to the next one. The results, although
preliminary, show that the link prediction approach is feasible for package
dependencies. Also, this work opens opportunities for further development of
software-specific strategies for dependency prediction.Comment: Accepted at ICSA 201
From a Domain Analysis to the Specification and Detection of Code and Design Smells
Code and design smells are recurring design problems in software systems that must be identified to avoid their possible negative consequences\ud
on development and maintenance. Consequently, several smell detection\ud
approaches and tools have been proposed in the literature. However,\ud
so far, they allow the detection of predefined smells but the detection\ud
of new smells or smells adapted to the context of the analysed systems\ud
is possible only by implementing new detection algorithms manually.\ud
Moreover, previous approaches do not explain the transition from\ud
specifications of smells to their detection. Finally, the validation\ud
of the existing approaches and tools has been limited on few proprietary\ud
systems and on a reduced number of smells. In this paper, we introduce\ud
an approach to automate the generation of detection algorithms from\ud
specifications written using a domain-specific language. This language\ud
is defined from a thorough domain analysis. It allows the specification\ud
of smells using high-level domain-related abstractions. It allows\ud
the adaptation of the specifications of smells to the context of\ud
the analysed systems.We specify 10 smells, generate automatically\ud
their detection algorithms using templates, and validate the algorithms\ud
in terms of precision and recall on Xerces v2.7.0 and GanttProject\ud
v1.10.2, two open-source object-oriented systems.We also compare\ud
the detection results with those of a previous approach, iPlasma
A Domain Analysis to Specify Design Defects and Generate Detection Algorithms
Quality experts often need to identify in software systems design defects, which are recurring design problems, that hinder development\ud
and maintenance. Consequently, several defect detection approaches\ud
and tools have been proposed in the literature. However, we are not\ud
aware of any approach that defines and reifies the process of generating\ud
detection algorithms from the existing textual descriptions of defects.\ud
In this paper, we introduce an approach to automate the generation\ud
of detection algorithms from specifications written using a domain-specific\ud
language. The domain-specific is defined from a thorough domain analysis.\ud
We specify several design defects, generate automatically detection\ud
algorithms using templates, and validate the generated detection\ud
algorithms in terms of precision and recall on Xerces v2.7.0, an\ud
open-source object-oriented system
Exploring Maintainability Assurance Research for Service- and Microservice-Based Systems: Directions and Differences
To ensure sustainable software maintenance and evolution, a diverse set of activities and concepts like metrics, change impact analysis, or antipattern detection can be used. Special maintainability assurance techniques have been proposed for service- and microservice-based systems, but it is difficult to get a comprehensive overview of this publication landscape. We therefore conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to collect and categorize maintainability assurance approaches for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and microservices. Our search strategy led to the selection of 223 primary studies from 2007 to 2018 which we categorized with a threefold taxonomy: a) architectural (SOA, microservices, both), b) methodical (method or contribution of the study), and c) thematic (maintainability assurance subfield). We discuss the distribution among these categories and present different research directions as well as exemplary studies per thematic category. The primary finding of our SLR is that, while very few approaches have been suggested for microservices so far (24 of 223, ?11%), we identified several thematic categories where existing SOA techniques could be adapted for the maintainability assurance of microservices
- …