Understanding Refactoring Tactics and their Effect on Software Quality

Agnihotri, Mansi; Chug, Anuradha

doi:10.1109/confluence52989.2022.9734141

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…These metrics are well‐known, widely‐used and provide an in‐depth insight into the major properties of the system 50–56 . Also, over the years, various researchers working in the field of software quality and maintenance have used and validated the selected metrics in their studies 11,20,57–64 . Few of the selected metrics such as coupling between objects (CBO), depth on inheritance tree (DIT), lack of cohesion of methods (LCOM), and weighted methods per class (WMC), belong to the famous CK metric suite 65 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[50][51][52][53][54][55][56] Also, over the years, various researchers working in the field of software quality and maintenance have used and validated the selected metrics in their studies. 11,20,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] Few of the selected metrics such as coupling between objects (CBO), depth on inheritance tree (DIT), lack of cohesion of methods (LCOM), and weighted methods per class (WMC), belong to the famous CK metric suite. 65 Moreover, the selected metrics cover various aspects of the object-oriented properties of software, such as cohesion, inheritance, size, coupling, and complexity.…”

Section: Inheritance Decreasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Severity Factor (SF): An aid to developers for application of refactoring operations to improve software quality

Agnihotri

Chug

2023

J Software Evolu Process

Self Cite

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Bad smells are certain flaws in the structure of the code that might not disturb the normal functioning of a program but negatively affects the software quality. Developers use refactoring as a corrective measure for the treatment of bad smells. The current study aids the developers in the application of refactoring by identifying the critical classes, that is, classes that are challenging to maintain and are of degraded quality. In this study, 10 quality metrics and 10 bad smells have been selected to conduct an investigation on different releases of five open‐source systems. A new metric, severity factor (SF) has been introduced that categorizes the classes of the selected systems into four criticality levels—severe, major, mid, and low. Also, the relationship between SF, criticality levels, and the refactoring operations has been analyzed. The findings show that 60% of the total classes have been affected by bad smells, and long statement is the most dominant smell present in 27.6% of the classes. The results show 84% of the refactoring operations have been performed on highly critical classes. Thus, the SF metric plays a crucial role in driving the developer's attention to the critical classes that need to be treated urgently.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Inheritance Decreasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Severity Factor (SF): An aid to developers for application of refactoring operations to improve software quality

Agnihotri

Chug

2023

J Software Evolu Process

Self Cite

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“…These findings demonstrate the varying outcomes observed in the literature, highlighting the complex nature of the correlation between refactoring techniques and the quality of software systems. The utilization of software refactoring as a widely recognized technique has been extensive in improving software quality [21,32]. However, the effectiveness of software refactoring in enhancing all software quality attributes consistently is not uniformly observed [10][11][12].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A refactoring categorization model for software quality improvement

Almogahed,

Mahdin,

Omar

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Refactoring, a widely adopted technique, has proven effective in facilitating and reducing maintenance activities and costs. Nonetheless, the effects of applying refactoring techniques on software quality exhibit inconsistencies and contradictions, leading to conflicting evidence on their overall benefit. Consequently, software developers face challenges in leveraging these techniques to improve software quality. Moreover, the absence of a categorization model hampers developers’ ability to decide the most suitable refactoring techniques for improving software quality, considering specific design goals. Thus, this study aims to propose a novel refactoring categorization model that categorizes techniques based on their measurable impacts on internal quality attributes. Initially, the most common refactoring techniques used by software practitioners were identified. Subsequently, an experimental study was conducted using five case studies to measure the impacts of refactoring techniques on internal quality attributes. A subsequent multi-case analysis was conducted to analyze these effects across the case studies. The proposed model was developed based on the experimental study results and the subsequent multi-case analysis. The model categorizes refactoring techniques into green, yellow, and red categories. The proposed model, by acting as a guideline, assists developers in understanding the effects of each refactoring technique on quality attributes, allowing them to select appropriate techniques to improve specific quality attributes. Compared to existing studies, the proposed model emerges superior by offering a more granular categorization (green, yellow, and red categories), and its range is wide (including ten refactoring techniques and eleven internal quality attributes). Such granularity not only equips developers with an in-depth understanding of each technique’s impact but also fosters informed decision-making. In addition, the proposed model outperforms current studies and offers a more nuanced understanding, explicitly highlighting areas of strength and concern for each refactoring technique. This enhancement aids developers in better grasping the implications of each refactoring technique on quality attributes. As a result, the model simplifies the decision-making process for developers, saving time and effort that would otherwise be spent weighing the benefits and drawbacks of various refactoring techniques. Furthermore, it has the potential to help reduce maintenance activities and associated costs.

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Optimized design refactoring (ODR): a generic framework for automated search-based refactoring to optimize object-oriented software architectures

Houichime,

El Amrani

2024

Autom Softw Eng

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Understanding Refactoring Tactics and their Effect on Software Quality

Cited by 4 publications

References 14 publications

Severity Factor (SF): An aid to developers for application of refactoring operations to improve software quality

Severity Factor (SF): An aid to developers for application of refactoring operations to improve software quality

A refactoring categorization model for software quality improvement

Optimized design refactoring (ODR): a generic framework for automated search-based refactoring to optimize object-oriented software architectures

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