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Comparing Software Architecture Descriptions and Raw Source-Code: A Statistical Analysis of Maintainability Metrics

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2013 (ICCSA 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7973))

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Abstract

The software systems have been exposed to constant changes in a short period of time. It requires high maintainable systems and makes maintainability one of the most important quality attributes. In this work we performed a statistical analysis of maintainability metrics in three mainstream open-source applications, Tomcat (webserver), Jedit (text editor) and Vuze (a peer to peer client). The metrics are applied to source-code and to derived similar architectural metrics using scatter plot, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and significance tests. The observations contradict the common assumption that software quality attributes (aka non-functional requirements) are mostly determined at the architectural level and raise new issues for future works in this field.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CISUC, Centre for Informatics and Systems, University of Coimbra, Portugal

    Eudisley Anjos & Mário Zenha-Rela

  2. CI, Informatic Center, Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil

    Eudisley Anjos

  3. Cin, Informatic Center, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil

    Fernando Castor

Authors
  1. Eudisley Anjos
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  2. Fernando Castor
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  3. Mário Zenha-Rela
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. L-I.S.U.T. - D.A.P.I.t. Facoltà Ingegneria, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, 10, 85100, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  2. Covenant University, Canaanland, Ota, Nigeria

    Sanjay Misra

  3. Partimento di Scienze e Tecnologie per LAgricoltura, le Foreste, la Natura e lEnergia, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy

    Maurizio Carlini

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ingegneria Civile e dell’Architecttura, Politecnico di Bari, Via Orabona, 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo M. Torre

  5. International University VNU-HCM, Quarter 6, Linh Trung, Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Hong-Quang Nguyen

  6. School of Business Systems, Monash University, 3800, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David Taniar

  7. Department of Intelligent Informatics, Kyushu Sangyo University, 2-3-1 Matsukadai, Higashi-ku, 813-8503, Fukuoka, Japan

    Bernady O. Apduhan

  8. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Perugia, Via Vanvitelli, 1, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

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Anjos, E., Castor, F., Zenha-Rela, M. (2013). Comparing Software Architecture Descriptions and Raw Source-Code: A Statistical Analysis of Maintainability Metrics. In: Murgante, B., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2013. ICCSA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7973. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39646-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39646-5_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39645-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39646-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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