Identifying Cross-Cutting Concerns Using Software Repository Mining

Identifying Cross-Cutting Concerns Using Software Repository Mining

Mulder, F.

Zaidman, A. (mentor)
Van Deursen, A. (mentor)

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Software Engineering

2009-08-12

Cross-cutting concerns are pieces of functionality that have not been captured into a separate module. They form a problem as they hinder program comprehension and maintainability. Solving this problem requires first identifying these cross-cutting concerns in pieces of software. Several methods for doing this have been proposed but the option of using software repository mining has largely been left unexplored. That technique can uncover relationships between modules that may not be present in the source code and thereby provide a different perspective on the cross-cutting concerns in a software system. We perform software repository mining on the repositories of two software systems for which the cross-cutting concerns are known: JHotDraw and Tomcat. We evaluate the results we get from our technique by comparing them with those known concerns. Based on the results of the evaluation, we make some suggestions for future directions in the area of identifying cross-cutting concerns using software repository mining.

cross-cutting concerns
software repository mining
aspect mining
frequent itemset mining

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9fe84fa1-0f2a-4a75-8c5b-739527ddbaa7

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2009 Mulder, F.