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Is Complexity of Re-test a Reason Why Some Refactorings Are Buggy? an Empirical Perspective

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Quality of Information and Communications Technology (QUATIC 2020)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1266))

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Abstract

In this short paper, we explore one simple, yet unexplored question about the relationship between refactoring and bugs. Is the complexity of re-testing code immediately after refactoring a reason why some refactorings are buggy? To facilitate our analysis, we use a set of over four thousand refactorings mined from three open-source systems and decomposed into the four test categories of van Deursen and Moonen. Preliminary results showed that, compared with non-buggy classes, buggy classes had been subjected to more refactorings where a large re-test commitment was required; extent of re-test may therefore be a significant factor in determining whether refactoring creates bugs. Our finding supports that of Bavota et al. - that more and better testing after certain refactoring practices could reduce the harm that refactorings cause.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://ant.apache.org/, http://argouml.tigris.org/, http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-j/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Brunel University, London, UK

    Steve Counsell, Steve Swift, Mahir Arzoky & Giuseppe Destefanis

Authors
  1. Steve Counsell
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  2. Steve Swift
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  3. Mahir Arzoky
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  4. Giuseppe Destefanis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steve Counsell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brunel University, London, UK

    Martin Shepperd

  2. Lisbon University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal

    Fernando Brito e Abreu

  3. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Alberto Rodrigues da Silva

  4. University of Castilla-La Mancha, Talavera de la Reina, Spain

    Ricardo Pérez-Castillo

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Counsell, S., Swift, S., Arzoky, M., Destefanis, G. (2020). Is Complexity of Re-test a Reason Why Some Refactorings Are Buggy? an Empirical Perspective. In: Shepperd, M., Brito e Abreu, F., Rodrigues da Silva, A., Pérez-Castillo, R. (eds) Quality of Information and Communications Technology. QUATIC 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1266. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58793-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58793-2_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-58792-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-58793-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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