Paper Info
Title
An empirical approach to evaluating dependency locality in hierarchically structured software systems
Abstract
In software development, especially component-based software development, dependency locality states that relevant software components should be at shorter distances than irrelevant components. This principle is used together with modularity and hierarchy to guide the design of large-scale complex software systems. In previous work, dependency locality and its correlation with design quality were studied by statically measuring the interactions between software components. This paper presents an empirical approach to evaluating the hierarchical structure of software systems through mining their revision history. Two metrics, spatial distance and temporal distance, are adapted to measure the dependencies between software components. The correlation of spatial distance and temporal distance between software components represents a factor that influences system design quality. More specially, a well designed system hierarchy should have a significant positive correlation while a non-significant positive correlation or a negative correlation would signify design flaws. In an application of this approach, we use Mantel test to study the dependency locality of six software systems from Apache projects.
Year
DOI
Venue
2009
10.1016/j.jss.2008.07.020
Journal of Systems and Software
Keywords
Field
DocType
software system,dependency locality,hierarchically structured software system,software development,relevant software component,spatial distance,temporal distance,software component,empirical approach,apache,component-based software development,large-scale complex software system,hierarchy,mantel test,negative correlation,software systems,component based software development,system design
Locality,Computer science,Connascence,Systems design,Software system,Theoretical computer science,Component-based software engineering,Software sizing,Software development,Modularity
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
82
3
The Journal of Systems & Software
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.42
21
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Liguo Yu128429.33
srini ramaswamy233745.77