Towards a framework for empirical assessment of changeability decay

Evaluating the relation between changeability decay and the characteristics of clones and methods

“…They found that the modularity decreases, the number of files touched increases, new changes introduce bugs, and time to perform changes increases, indicating changeability decay. Arisholm et al [11] compared change and structural measurements using regression models to assess which one determined changeability decay better. They found that change measurements capture changeability decay dimensions that structural measurements cannot capture.…”

“…Changeability comprises the attributes of software that affect the effort needed for modifications, and changeability decay occurs when software characteristics hinder change. Changeability decay has been also defined as the increase of effort to implement and propagate a change [11]. Clones can affect changeability by increasing the propagation effort (consistent changes), and the number of changes (bug fixes).…”

Defining a Requirements Process Improvement Model

“…Growth/ change functional and non-functional requirements not documented in original specification that result in changes over time, incorporates changeability decay (Arisholm and Sjoberg 2000) Requirements Non-functional…”

Understanding Change Prone Classes in Object Oriented Software

“…Handling change is one of those fundamental problems in software engineering. Evolutionary development has been proposed as an efficient way to deal with risks such as new technology and imprecise or changing requirements [15]. Changes are made to add new features, to adapt to a new environment, to fix bugs or to re-factor the source code [4].…”