Abstract
Dependency-based software change impact analysis
is the domain concerned with estimating the sets of artifacts impacted
by a change to a related artifact. Research has shown that
analysing the various class dependency types independently will
never completely reveal the impact sets. Therefore, dependency
types are combined to improve the precision of estimated when
compared to impact sets.
Software classes can be linked in different ways; for instance
semantically, if their meaning is somewhat related or, structurally,
if one class depends on the services of other classes. ‘Hidden’
dependencies arise when two classes, linked structurally, do
not share the same semantic namespace or when semantically
dependent classes do not share a structural link.
With the goal of revealing hidden dependencies during change
impact analysis, we empirically investigated the relationship
between structural and semantic class dependencies in objectoriented
software systems.
Results show that (i) semantic and structural links are significantly
associated, (ii) the strengths of those links do not play a
significant role and, (iii) a significant number of dependencies
are hidden.
We propose two refactoring techniques to deal with hidden
dependencies, based on existing design patterns. We plan to
investigate them further to assert whether either has the potential
for reducing refactoring and testing effort.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Not Known |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 6 Jun 2017 |
| Event | ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) - Toronto, Canada Duration: 9 Nov 2017 → 10 Nov 2017 |
Conference
| Conference | ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | Toronto |
| Period | 9/11/17 → 10/11/17 |