On the Relevance of Code Anomalies for Identifying Architecture Degradation Symptoms
Abstract
The longevity of evolving software systems largely depends on their resilience to architectural design degradation. It is often assumed that code anomalies are always key indicators of architecture degradation symptoms. The problem is that there is still limited knowledge about the circumstances under which code anomalies represent architectural problems. Without this knowledge, developers are not able to implement architecturally-relevant strategies for code refactoring. This paper presents an empirical study about the influence of code anomalies on architecture degradation symptoms. To this end, we studied the relationship between code anomalies and architecture problems in 6 software systems, which were intended to adhere different architectural decompositions. A total of 40 versions and 2056 code anomalies were analyzed. Our study revealed that 78% of all architecture problems in the programs were related to code anomalies. In particular, more than 33% of all architecture problems were unexpectedly induced by anomalous code elements in the systems' first version. We also found that the refactoring strategies, even when frequently applied in those systems, did not significantly contribute to remove architecturally-relevant code anomalies.
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Some code smell detection tools employ code smell metrics relevant to identification of architectural smells.
“Some code smell detection tools also employ code smell metrics that are relevant to the identification of architectural smells [48, 58].”
From Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [58]
Obsolete documentation and increasing complexity of software are expressed as top reasons that cause architecture erosion in interviews.
“Obsolete documentation and increasing complexity of software are expressed as the top reasons that cause architecture erosion in our interviews (P1a, P3b, P3f, P4a-b), which have been also raised in the literature [25, 38, 58, 63].”
From Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [58]
Inadequate tool support for module- and system-level refactoring.
“Inadequate tool support for module- and system-level refactoring ( cogs ).”
From Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [58]
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Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities
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- Authors
- Macia, I., Arcoverde, R., Garcia, A., Chavez, C., & von Staa, A.
- Affiliations
- Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- ORCID
- Garcia, Alessandro
- Venue
- 2012 16th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2012-03
- Pages
- 277-286
- ISSN
- 1534-5351 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2044556410
- Cited by
- 121
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 7.30
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Euromicro Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Software System Performance and Reliability
- Keywords
- software architecture, refactoring, architectural problems, software evolution, software resilience
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