Abstract
Several empirical studies suggest that an alignment between the architecture of a software system and the coordination of development activities lead to better quality and improved performance. In this paper we investigate the possible effects of misalignments due to changes in the software architecture by describing the results of an exploratory study about the effects of refactoring in the coordination of software development activities in an open source project. We studied refactorings because they are perfect examples of changes in the software architecture. The project evaluated is the Jackrabbit, an Apache Software Foundation project. This project was analyzed using statistical tests and social networks analysis metrics. We evaluate different hypothesis regarding the impact of the refactoring process on project coordination. Initial results suggest that core software developers are especially affected by refactoring activities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Balieiro, M. A., et al. (2008). Facilitating Social Network Studies of FLOSS using the OSSNetwork. International Conference on Open Source Systems. Milan, Italy, Springer Series in Computer Science: 343–350.
Bass, M., et al. (2007). Architectural Misalignment: An Experience Report. IEEE/IFIP Working Conference on Software Architecture.
Borgatti, S. (2000). “Models of Core-Periphery Structures.” Journal of Social Network Analysis. 21: 375– 395.
Brooks, F. P. (1974). The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Addison-Wesley.
Cataldo, M. (2007). Dependencies in Geographically Distributed Software Development: Overcoming the Limits of Modularity. School of Computer Science. Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Mellon University. Ph.D.: 188.
Cataldo, M., et al. (2006). Identification of Coordination Requirements: implications for the Design of Collaboration and Awareness Tools. 20th Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Banff, Alberta, Canada, ACM Press.
Conway, M. E. (1968). “How Do Committees invent?” Datamation 14(4): 28–31.
de Souza, C. R. B. and D. Redmiles (2008). An Empirical Study of Software Developers' Management of Dependencies and Changes. International Conference on Software Engineering. Leipzig, Germany, IEEE Press.
de Souza, C. R. B., et al. (2004). How a Good Software Practice thwarts Collaboration — The Multiple roles of APIs in Software Development. Foundations of Software Engineering, Newport Beach, CA, USA, ACM Press.
Fowler, M., et al. (1999). Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, Addison-Wesley Professional.
Grinter, R. E. (1999). System Architecture: Product Designing and Social Engineering. Work Activities Coordination and Collaboration, San Francisco, CA, USA, ACM Press.
Parnas, D. L. (1972). “On the Criteria to be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules.” Communications of the ACM. 15(12): 1053–1058.
Sosa, M. E., et al. (2004). The Misalignment of Product Architecture and Organizational Structure in Complex Product Development. Management Science. 50(12): 1674–1689.
Staudenmayer, N. A. (1997). Managing Multiple Interdependencies in Large Scale Software Development Projects. Sloan School of Management. Cambridge, MA, USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ph. D.
Yin, R. (2004). Case study research: Design and methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publishing.
Wasserman, S. and K. Faust (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.
Wild, C. J. and G. A. F. Seber (1999). Chance Encounters: A First Course in Data Analysis and Inference, John Wiley & Sons.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this paper
Cite this paper
de Souza, C.R.B., Rosa, M.P., Goto, C.S., Costa, J.M.R., Treccani, P.J.F. (2009). On the effects of Refactoring in the Coordination of Software Development Activities. In: Wagner, I., Tellioğlu, H., Balka, E., Simone, C., Ciolfi, L. (eds) ECSCW 2009. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-854-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-854-4_13
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-853-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-854-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)