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Software Evolution 1
Introduction to Software Evolution and Maintenance
Software EvolutionChapter 1: History and Challenges of Software Evolution
Tom Mens
Software Engineering, 7th EditionChapter 21: Software Evolution
Ian Sommerville
Software Evolution 2
Outline
Overview Software evolution processes The research landscape
Software Evolution 3
Importance of evolution
Organizations have huge investments in their software systems - they are critical business assets.
To maintain the value of these assets to the business, they must be changed and updated.
The majority of the software budget in large companies is devoted to evolving existing software rather than developing new software.
Studies indicate that up to 75% of all software professionals are involved in some form of maintenance/evolution activity.
Software Evolution 4
Software change
Software change is inevitable• New requirements emerge when the software is used;• The business environment changes;• Errors must be repaired;• New computers and equipment is added to the
system;• The performance or reliability of the system may have
to be improved. A key problem for organizations is implementing
and managing change to their existing software systems.
Software Evolution 5
Repair software faults• Changing a system to correct deficiencies in the way meets
its requirements. Adapt software to a different operating environment
• Changing a system so that it operates in a different environment (computer, OS, etc.) from its initial implementation.
Add to or modify the system’s functionality• Modifying the system to satisfy new requirements.
Improve the program structure and system performance• Rewriting all or parts of the system to make it more efficient
and maintainable.
Types of changes
Software Evolution 6
Software evolution and software maintenance
No standard definitions.
Broad definition of evolution: Generally, software evolution refers to the study and management of the process of making changes to software over time. • In this definition, software evolution comprises:
• Development activities• Maintenance activities• Reengineering activities
Narrow definition of evolution: Sometimes, software evolution is used to refer to the activity of adding new functionality to existing software.
Maintenance refers to the activity of modifying software after it has been put to use in order to maintain its usefulness.
Software Evolution 7
Repair software faults• Changing a system to correct deficiencies in the way meets
its requirements. Adapt software to a different operating environment
• Changing a system so that it operates in a different environment (computer, OS, etc.) from its initial implementation.
Add to or modify the system’s functionality• Modifying the system to satisfy new requirements.
Improve the program structure and system performance• Rewriting all or parts of the system to make it more efficient
and maintainable.
Types of changes“M
aint
enan
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“Evo
lutio
n”
“Ree
ngin
eerin
g”
Software Evolution 8
History
1960s – 1970s• Inclusion of maintenance in waterfall lifecycle after delivery of the software
product.• Perception that post-delivery activities only consisted of bug fixes and minor
adjustments.• Did not account for the need to add functionality due to new and changed
requirements. 1970s
• Lehman postulated the initial laws of program evolution.• Stressed the need for continuous evolution due to changes in the software’s
operational environment. Late 1970s – 1980s
• Initial process models that handled change requests. 1990s
• General acceptance of software evolution.• Development of new process models that accounted for evolution activities:
evolutionary development, spiral model, agile software development.
Software Evolution 12
Outline
Overview Software evolution processes The research landscape
Software Evolution 13
Evolution processes
Processes for evolving a software product depend on• The type of software being maintained;• The development processes used;• The skills and experience of the people involved.
Proposals for change are the drivers for system evolution. Change identification and evolution continue throughout the system lifetime.
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 14
Change identification and evolution
Change proposalsNew system
Change identificationprocess
Software evolutionprocess
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 15
The system evolution process
Releaseplanning
Changeimplementation
Systemrelease
Impactanalysis
Changerequests
Platformadaptation
Systemenhancement
Fault repair
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 16
Change implementation
Requirementsupdating
Softwaredevelopment
Requirementsanalysis
Proposedchanges
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 17
Legacy systems
For many systems, the software evolution process is not as straightforward as described.
• Associated models and documentation of the software may be missing or hopelessly outdated.
• The new requirements may not be anticipated by the design of the software, making the resulting changes difficult to implement correctly.
Legacy systems are old systems that have become significantly difficult to modify.
• Accumulation of changes have eroded the modularity of the original design.• The documentation has not been maintained and has become obsolete.• One or more pieces of its underlying technologies have become obsolete.
Two complementary techniques are employed to support the continued evolution of legacy systems:
• Reverse engineering.• Reengineering.
Software Evolution 18
Obsolete system components
Hardware - may be obsolete mainframe hardware. Support software - may rely on support software from
suppliers who are no longer in business. Application software - may be written in obsolete
programming languages. Application data - often incomplete and inconsistent. Business processes - may be constrained by software
structure and functionality. Business policies and rules - may be implicit and
embedded in the system software.
Software Evolution 19
Forward and reverse engineering and reengineering
“Forward Engineering is the traditional process of moving from high-level abstractions and logical, implementation-independent designs to the physical implementation of a system.”
“Reverse Engineering is the process of analyzing a subject system to identify the system’s components and their interrelationships and create representations of the system in another form or at a higher level of abstraction.”
“Reengineering ... is the examination and alteration of a subject system to reconstitute it in a new form and the subsequent implementation of the new form.”
— Chikofsky and Cross [R.S. Arnold, Software Reengineering, IEEE CS Press, 1993]
Software Evolution 20
Reverse engineering
In many legacy systems, the only reliable information about the system is the source code.
Reverse engineering reconstructs requirements, design models, test cases and user documentation consistent with the current state of the source code.
Reverse engineering encompasses several activities: program comprehension, software visualization, static and dynamic slicing, etc.
Reverse engineering is often the initial activity in a reengineering project.
Software Evolution 21
System reengineering
Rewriting parts or all of a legacy system to make it more evolvable, so that it can more easily accommodate future change requests.• Some authors [e.g., Sommerville] define it more strictly as the
process of restructuring legacy software without changing its functionality.
• Others include a forward engineering phase as part of reengineering.
Reengineering is applicable where some but not all sub-systems of a larger system require frequent maintenance.
Reengineering involves adding effort to make them easier to maintain. The system may be restructured and redocumented.
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 22
Advantages of reengineering
Reduced risk• There is a high risk in new software development.
There may be development problems, staffing problems and specification problems.
Reduced cost• The cost of re-engineering is often significantly less
than the costs of developing new software.
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 23
The reengineering process
Reverseengineering
Programdocumentation
Datare-engineering
Original data
Programstructure
improvement
Programmodularization
Structuredprogram
Re-engineereddata
Modularizedprogram
Originalprogram
Source codetranslation
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 24
Reengineering process activities
Source code translation• Convert code to a new language.
Reverse engineering• Analyze the program to understand it;
Program structure improvement• Restructure automatically for understandability;
Program modularization• Reorganize the program structure;
Data reengineering• Clean-up and restructure system data.
Sommerville, Ch. 21
Software Evolution 25
Outline
Overview Software evolution processes The research landscape
Software Evolution 26
Research landscape
Two aspects of software evolution research Reverse engineering and reengineering
techniques Techniques for dealing with change Process and change management Evolution of software artifacts
Mens & Demeyer, Ch. 1
Software Evolution 27
Two aspects of software evolution
“What and why”• Focuses on software evolution as a scientific discipline. • Studies the nature of the software evolution phenomenon to
understand its driving factors.• Key interests include the formulation and refinement of
fundamental theories and laws of software evolution. “How”
• Focuses on software evolution as an engineering discipline.• Studies how to support the daily tasks of the software developer
or project manager. • Key interests include the development and validation of tools
and techniques to guide, implement and control software evolution.
Mens & Demeyer, Ch. 1
Software Evolution 28
Techniques for dealing with change
Program comprehension• Understanding the existing program in order to change it.
Change impact analysis• Identification of the parts of the system that will be affected by a
proposed change. Change propagation
• Making sure that all affected parts are changed correctly. Restructuring/Refactoring
• Improving the software structure or architecture without changing the behavior.
Regression testing• Efficiently verifying that the change preserved the behavior of
functionalities that should not be impacted.
Mens & Demeyer, Ch. 1
Software Evolution 29
Management
Economics of software evolution• Developing economic models to support evolution-related
management decisions.• Comparing the cost of different strategies for changes.• Assessing the cost-benefits of investing in reengineering.
Software metrics• Measuring the quality of a change.• Measuring the degree of modularity.
Configuration management• Change management processes.• Management of multiple versions.• Merging versions together.• Release management.
Mens & Demeyer, Ch. 1
Software Evolution 30
Evolution of software artifacts
Requirements evolution• Managing requirements changes.
Architecture evolution• Reengineering the architectures of legacy systems.• Migration to distributed architectures, e.g., service-oriented
architectures.• Maintenance issues with modern architectures.
Design evolution• Evolution of design models.
Test case evolution• Adding and modifying test cases to verify that the system
behavior was changed as intended. Traceability management
• How to assure the consistency of the different artifacts.
Mens & Demeyer, Ch. 1
Software Evolution 31
Other evolution issues
Data evolution• Migrating to a new database schema.• Verifying that the information in the existing databases are
preserved. Runtime evolution
• How to modify a system without stopping it.• Encompasses runtime reconfiguration, dynamic adaptation,
dynamic upgrading. Language evolution
• Dealing with changes in the programming language definition.• Especially an issue in multi-language systems.• Designing languages to make them more robust to evolution.
Mens & Demeyer, Ch. 1
Software Evolution 32
Our research interests
Empirical studies of software evolution Mining software repositories Semantic change analysis