Search-based refactoring: Metrics are not enough

White, David R.; Simons, Chris; Singer, Jeremy; White, David

Abstract

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Search-based Software Engineering (SBSE) techniques have been applied extensively to refactor software, often based on metrics that describe the object-oriented structure of an application. Recent work shows that in some cases applying popular SBSE tools to open-source software does not necessarily lead to an improved version of the software as assessed by some subjective criteria. Through a survey of professionals, we investigate the relationship between popular SBSE refactoring metrics and the subjective opinions of software engineers. We find little or no correlation between the two. Through qualitative analysis, we find that a simple static view of software is insufficient to assess software quality, and that software quality is dependent on factors that are not amenable to measurement via metrics. We recommend that future SBSE refactoring research should incorporate information about the dynamic behaviour of software, and conclude that a human-in-the-loop approach may be the only way to refactor software in a manner helpful to an engineer.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Sep 23, 2015
• Journal: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
• Print ISSN: 0302-9743
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9275
• Pages: 47-61
• Series Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Series Number: 9275
• Book Title: Search-Based Software Engineering: 7th International Symposium SSBSE 2015
• ISBN: 9783319221823
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22183-0_4
• Keywords: search-based software engineering, metrics, optimisation, software quality
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/829472
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22183-0_4
• Contract Date: Apr 22, 2016