Design Rule Spaces: A New Model for Representing and Analyzing Software Architecture

Cai, Yuanfang; Xiao, Lu; Kazman, Rick; Mo, Ran; Feng, Qiong

doi:10.1109/tse.2018.2797899

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…In these prior studies [8], [9], we demonstrated that the majority of error-prone files can be captured by just a few DRSpaces, suggesting that most error-prone files in a project are architecturally connected. We named these DRSpace Architecture Roots, and argued that these roots typically contain architectural design problems which could propagate errorproneness among multiple files.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…It has typically been difficult for developers to modify a single file without unexpected changes to other files, and multiple files often need to be changed together for a maintenance task. Our prior work [8], [9], [10] revealed that bug-prone files in a project are usually connected, and their connections often exhibit architecture problems. 1 These anti-patterns, as we will show, propagate bug-proneness among files.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Design Rule Space. We recently proposed the concept of Design Rule Space (DRSpace) [8], [9] to model the fact that the architecture of a software system can and should be represented as a set of overlapping design spaces, each reflecting an unique aspect of the architecture. For example, each feature implemented, or each pattern applied can be modeled as an individual design space.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Architecture Anti-Patterns: Automatically Detectable Violations of Design Principles

Cai

Kazman

et al. 2021

IIEEE Trans. Software Eng.

Self Cite

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In large-scale software systems, error-prone or change-prone files rarely stand alone. They are typically architecturally connected and their connections usually exhibit architecture problems causing the propagation of error-proneness or change-proneness. In this paper, we propose and empirically validate a suite of architecture anti-patterns that occur in all large-scale software systems and are involved in high maintenance costs. We define these architecture anti-patterns based on fundamental design principles and Baldwin and Clark's design rule theory. We can automatically detect these anti-patterns by analyzing a project's structural relationships and revision history. Through our analyses of 19 large-scale software projects, we demonstrate that these architecture anti-patterns have significant impact on files' bug-proneness and change-proneness. In particular, we show that 1) files involved in these architecture anti-patterns are more error-prone and change-prone; 2) the more anti-patterns a file is involved in, the more error-prone and change-prone it is; and 3) while all of our defined architecture anti-patterns contribute to file's error-proneness and change-proneness, Unstable Interface and Crossing contribute the most by far.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Architecture Anti-Patterns: Automatically Detectable Violations of Design Principles

Cai

Kazman

et al. 2021

IIEEE Trans. Software Eng.

Self Cite

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“…The evolutionary coupling is much lower compared to other traditional software systems we studied in the past . In comparison, the cochanges among source files in MD PnP are more frequent …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A case study on modularity violations in cyber‐physical systems

Xiao

Pennock

Cardoso

et al. 2020

Systems Engineering

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In recent years, cyber-physical systems (CPS) have been widely used in different problem domains.The hardware and software components in a CPS are deeply intertwined at various levels of abstraction under changing contexts to achieve the desired goals. One way to manage this complexity is through the use of modular architecture that enables portions of a CPS to be upgraded, replaced, or fixed in a plug-and-play manner. In practice, nominally modular architectures depart from this ideal. Thus, there is a need to identify, measure, and understand the causes of these departures. Techniques have been developed to accomplish this for pure software systems, but can these techniques be adapted to infer hardware-related modularity violations in a CPS? To investigate this question, we adapted methods from pure-software systems and analyzed two open-source CPS: OpenWrt and MD PnP. We found that the software architecture of these systems is well modularized. However, we were able to detect and measure modularity violations associated with hardware and other domain-related concepts. Furthermore, software components related to hardware were more likely to change frequently compared to general software components. Together, these findings suggest that it is feasible to identify a subset of hardwaredriven modularity violations using techniques adapted from pure software systems.

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“…However, most zoom into specific software sustainability aspects. For example, good references include the work of: Cai et al [5], which uses the notion of design rules to detect flows at the software architecture level over extended periods of time [technical sustainability]; Hindle [11] relating the direct impact of software change on energy consumption, and Li et al [17] presenting practices that indirectly (i.e. if adopted by developers) can help reducing the energy consumption of mobile applications [environmental sustainability]; Widdicks et al [27] study socio-technical sustainability at the individual level, while Tamburri et al [22] do so at the level of development teams and whole organizations [social sustainability].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Architecture Design Decision Maps for Software Sustainability

Lago

2019

2019 IEEE/ACM 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS)

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In the context of software engineering, sustainability can be defined as the "capacity to endure" and to "preserve the function of a system over an extended period of time". These definitions mainly point towards technical sustainability over time. Sustainability, however, may entail a much broader scope including economic, social and environmental sustainability as well. In spite of the exciting hype around sustainability, we are very much lacking suitable instruments to design software-intensive systems that are sustainable and enable sustainability goals. To fill this gap, we advocate the treatment of sustainability as a software quality property and defined a software sustainability assessment method that helps to make sustainability-driven design decisions. The method essentially relies on the definition of so-called "decision maps", i.e. views aimed at framing the architecture design concerns around the four sustainability dimensions mentioned above-technical, economic, social and environmental sustainability. In this context, this paper presents the notion of decision map. We then use a number of illustrative examples extracted from industrial projects, to summarize our lessons learned and reflections with general observations and future research directions, with the goal to spark a discussion in the research community.

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Design Rule Spaces: A New Model for Representing and Analyzing Software Architecture

Cited by 29 publications

References 105 publications

Architecture Anti-Patterns: Automatically Detectable Violations of Design Principles

Architecture Anti-Patterns: Automatically Detectable Violations of Design Principles

A case study on modularity violations in cyber‐physical systems

Architecture Design Decision Maps for Software Sustainability

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