Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
C
HAPTER
S
EVEN
V
ISUALIZING THE
E
VOLUTION OF
S
OFTWARE
S
YSTEMS USING THE
F
OREST
M
ETAPHOR
U
GO
E
RRA AND
G
IUSEPPE
S
CANNIELLO
Abstract
We present an approach based on a forest metaphor to ease the
comprehension of evolving object oriented software systems. The
approach takes advantage of familiar concepts such as forests of trees, sub-
forests of trees, trunks, branches, leaves, and colour of leaves. In
particular, each release of a software system is represented as a forest that
software maintainers can navigate and interact with. Maintainers can pass
from one release to another to understand how the entire software and its
classes have evolved throughout the past releases. The approach has been
implemented as a 3D interactive environment tool. A preliminary
empirical evaluation has been conducted to assess that environment and its
underlying approach.
Introduction
Software maintenance is essential in the evolution of software systems and
represents one of the most expensive, time consuming, and challenging
phases of the development process. Maintenance starts after the delivery
of the first version of the system and lasts much longer than the initial
development process [1]. During the maintenance phase, a software
system is continually changed and enhanced for many reasons (e.g., to
correct faults or to improve quality requirements) [2]. Whatever the
maintenance operation, a maintainer has to comprehend source code
implemented by others [3]. Therefore, it is easy to understand that the
greater part of the cost and effort of performing maintenance tasks is due
to comprehension of the source code. There are several aspects that can
Search WWH ::
Custom Search