Understanding software evolution with software cities

  • Software cities are visualizations of software systems in the form of virtual cities. They are used as platforms to integrate a large variety of product- and process-related analysis data. Their usability, however, for real-world software development often suffers from their inability to appropriately deal with software changes. Even small structural changes can disrupt the overall structure of the city, which in turn corrupts the mental maps of its users. In this article we describe a systematic approach to utilize the city metaphor for the visualization of evolving software systems as growing software cities. The main contribution is a new layout approach which explicitly takes the development history of software systems into account. The approach has two important effects: first, it creates a stable gestalt of software cities even when the underlying software systems evolve; thus, by preserving its users’ mental maps these cities are especially suitable for use during ongoing system development. Second, it makes history directlySoftware cities are visualizations of software systems in the form of virtual cities. They are used as platforms to integrate a large variety of product- and process-related analysis data. Their usability, however, for real-world software development often suffers from their inability to appropriately deal with software changes. Even small structural changes can disrupt the overall structure of the city, which in turn corrupts the mental maps of its users. In this article we describe a systematic approach to utilize the city metaphor for the visualization of evolving software systems as growing software cities. The main contribution is a new layout approach which explicitly takes the development history of software systems into account. The approach has two important effects: first, it creates a stable gestalt of software cities even when the underlying software systems evolve; thus, by preserving its users’ mental maps these cities are especially suitable for use during ongoing system development. Second, it makes history directly visible in the city layouts, which allows for supporting novel analysis scenarios. We illustrate such scenarios by presenting several thematic cities’ maps, each capturing specific development history aspects.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Frank Steinbrückner, Claus Lewerentz
URL:http://ivi.sagepub.com/content/12/2/200
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/1473871612438785
ISSN:1473-8716
ISSN:1473-8724
Title of the source (English):Information Visualization
Document Type:Scientific journal article peer-reviewed
Language:English
Year of publication:2013
Tag:metrics; software cities; software comprehension; software evolution; software landscapes; software visualization
Volume/Year:12
Issue number:2
First Page:200
Last Page:216
Faculty/Chair:Fakultät 1 MINT - Mathematik, Informatik, Physik, Elektro- und Informationstechnik / FG Praktische Informatik / Softwaresystemtechnik
Institution name at the time of publication:Fakultät für Mathematik, Naturwissenschaften und Informatik (eBTU) / LS Praktische Informatik / Software-Systemtechnik
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