Software Architecture Degradation in Open Source Software: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Software architecture (SA) has a prominent role in all stages of system development. Given the persistent evolution of software systems over time, SA tends to be eroded or degraded. Such phenomenon is called architectural degradation. In light of this phenomenon, the current study focuses on problems of architectural erosion in the open-source software (OSS). There has been a significant research activity on the OSS over the last decade. Nonetheless, the architectural degradation problems in the OSS are still scattered and disorganized. In addition, there has been no systematic attempt made on existing studies to provide evidence, insight and better understanding for researchers and practitioners. The main objective of the present study is to provide a profound understanding and to review the existing studies on the architectural erosion of the OSS. In this study, we conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to gather, organize, classify, and analyze the architectural degradation of previous papers published until the year 2020. The data for this study were collected from eight major online databases (ACM, Springer, ScienceDirect, Taylor, IEEE Explorer, Scopus, Web of Science, and Wiley). A total of 74 primary studies were identified as the final samples of this research. The results indicated that rapid software evolution, frequent changes, and the lack of developers' awareness are the most common causes occurred in architecture degradation. Meanwhile, the prominent key indicators of architectural erosion symptoms are code smells and architectural smells. Additionally, the results indicated the most commonly used of the proposed solution for addressing architectural erosion is the metrics-based strategy. Acknowledging the limitations of the current study, more studies are needed that focus on determining other causes that are still ambiguous and improving the other solutions to provide better results in the precision and effectiveness of addressing architectural erosion.

Simulated Software Testing Process and Its Optimization Considering Heterogeneous Debuggers and Release Time

“…It is proposed by Goel and Okumoto in 1979, and their framework of NHPP models is called Goel-Okumoto (GO) model [42]. Thus, this study also uses NHPP to describe the processes of the detection and correction of faults, which forms assumptions (4) and (5). Since the fault correction time is considered in this study, assumption (6) is also proposed after assumptions (4) and (5).…”

“…For illustration, we investigate the cases of SN = [5,3] and SN = [3,5]. The fault detection rates for both cases are respectively b = 1.3 and b = 1.1.…”

“…Since the computer era, software has been playing an essentially important role in many complex, sophisticated and safety-critical systems of a variety of significant and multifaceted areas, such as air traffic analysis and control, nuclear reactor testing and management, military and defense services, etc. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The failure of software may lead to significant losses.…”

Architecture violations detection and visualization in the continuous integration pipeline

“…When working with code, it is often possible to deviate from the intended software architecture 2,3 . This leads to a phenomenon called architecture erosion , which is the result of modifications to a system that violate its fundamental architectural rules 4‐6 …”

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