On the correlation between Architectural Smells and Static Analysis Warnings

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Esposito, Matteo, Robredo, Mikel, Fontana, Francesca Arcelli, Lenarduzzi, Valentina
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916928706052096
author Esposito, Matteo
Robredo, Mikel
Fontana, Francesca Arcelli
Lenarduzzi, Valentina
author_facet Esposito, Matteo
Robredo, Mikel
Fontana, Francesca Arcelli
Lenarduzzi, Valentina
contents Background. Software quality assurance is essential during software development and maintenance. Static Analysis Tools (SAT) are widely used for assessing code quality. Architectural smells are becoming more daunting to address and evaluate among quality issues. Objective. We aim to understand the relationships between static analysis warnings (SAW) and architectural smells (AS) to guide developers/maintainers in focusing their efforts on SAWs more prone to co-occurring with AS. Method. We performed an empirical study on 103 Java projects totaling 72 million LOC belonging to projects from a vast set of domains, and 785 SAW detected by four SAT, Checkstyle, Findbugs, PMD, SonarQube, and 4 architectural smells detected by ARCAN tool. We analyzed how SAWs influence AS presence. Finally, we proposed an AS remediation effort prioritization based on SAW severity and SAW proneness to specific ASs. Results. Our study reveals a moderate correlation between SAWs and ASs. Different combinations of SATs and SAWs significantly affect AS occurrence, with certain SAWs more likely to co-occur with specific ASs. Conversely, 33.79% of SAWs act as "healthy carriers", not associated with any ASs. Conclusion. Practitioners can ignore about a third of SAWs and focus on those most likely to be associated with ASs. Prioritizing AS remediation based on SAW severity or SAW proneness to specific ASs results in effective rankings like those based on AS severity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_17354
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the correlation between Architectural Smells and Static Analysis Warnings
Esposito, Matteo
Robredo, Mikel
Fontana, Francesca Arcelli
Lenarduzzi, Valentina
Software Engineering
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Background. Software quality assurance is essential during software development and maintenance. Static Analysis Tools (SAT) are widely used for assessing code quality. Architectural smells are becoming more daunting to address and evaluate among quality issues. Objective. We aim to understand the relationships between static analysis warnings (SAW) and architectural smells (AS) to guide developers/maintainers in focusing their efforts on SAWs more prone to co-occurring with AS. Method. We performed an empirical study on 103 Java projects totaling 72 million LOC belonging to projects from a vast set of domains, and 785 SAW detected by four SAT, Checkstyle, Findbugs, PMD, SonarQube, and 4 architectural smells detected by ARCAN tool. We analyzed how SAWs influence AS presence. Finally, we proposed an AS remediation effort prioritization based on SAW severity and SAW proneness to specific ASs. Results. Our study reveals a moderate correlation between SAWs and ASs. Different combinations of SATs and SAWs significantly affect AS occurrence, with certain SAWs more likely to co-occur with specific ASs. Conversely, 33.79% of SAWs act as "healthy carriers", not associated with any ASs. Conclusion. Practitioners can ignore about a third of SAWs and focus on those most likely to be associated with ASs. Prioritizing AS remediation based on SAW severity or SAW proneness to specific ASs results in effective rankings like those based on AS severity.
title On the correlation between Architectural Smells and Static Analysis Warnings
topic Software Engineering
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.17354