In software maintenance and evolution, it is important to assess both code and architecture in order to identify issues to be solved to improve software quality. Different tools provide some kind of index giving us an overall evaluation of a project to be used when managing its technical debt. In this paper, we outline how the indexes, that we call in general Technical Debt Indexes, provided by five different tools are computed. We describe their principal features and differences, what aspects they are missing, and we outline if (and how) the indexes take into account architectural problems that could have a major impact on the architectural debt. We show that the indexes rely on different information sources and measure different quantities.

ARCELLI FONTANA, F., Roveda, R., Zanoni, M. (2016). Technical Debt Indexes Provided by Tools: A Preliminary Discussion. In Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt (MTD 2016) (pp.28-31). Raleigh : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. [10.1109/MTD.2016.11].

Technical Debt Indexes Provided by Tools: A Preliminary Discussion

ARCELLI FONTANA, FRANCESCA
Primo
;
ROVEDA, RICCARDO
Secondo
;
ZANONI, MARCO
Ultimo
2016

Abstract

In software maintenance and evolution, it is important to assess both code and architecture in order to identify issues to be solved to improve software quality. Different tools provide some kind of index giving us an overall evaluation of a project to be used when managing its technical debt. In this paper, we outline how the indexes, that we call in general Technical Debt Indexes, provided by five different tools are computed. We describe their principal features and differences, what aspects they are missing, and we outline if (and how) the indexes take into account architectural problems that could have a major impact on the architectural debt. We show that the indexes rely on different information sources and measure different quantities.
slide + paper
technical debt; index; design metric; code smell; architectural smell; architectural violation; sqale; principal; excessive structural complexity; quality deficit index
English
International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt - co-located with ICSME - October 4
2016
Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt (MTD 2016)
9781509038541
2016
2016
28
31
7776450
reserved
ARCELLI FONTANA, F., Roveda, R., Zanoni, M. (2016). Technical Debt Indexes Provided by Tools: A Preliminary Discussion. In Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt (MTD 2016) (pp.28-31). Raleigh : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. [10.1109/MTD.2016.11].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/130607
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