article

The fractal dimension of software networks as a global quality metric

Authors:

R. TonelliAuthors Info & Claims

Information Sciences—Informatics and Computer Science, Intelligent Systems, Applications: An International Journal, Volume 245

Pages 290 - 303

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2013.05.014

Published: 01 October 2013 Publication History

Abstract

We analyzed the source code of various releases of two large Object Oriented Open Source Java software systems, Eclipse and Netbeans, investigating the complexity of the whole release and of its subprojects. We show that when the classes in the source code and the dependencies between them are considered, such systems can be viewed as complex software networks, and emerging structures, characteristic of fractals, appear at different length scales - on the entire systems and on subprojects of any size. We were able to find in all examined cases a scaling region where it is possible to compute a self-similar coefficient, the fractal dimension, using ''the box counting method''. Such a coefficient is a single metric related to the system's complexity. More importantly, we were able to show that this measure looks fairly related to software quality, acting as a global quality software metric. In particular, we computed the defects of each software system, and we found a clear correlation among the number of defects in the system, or in a subproject, and its fractal dimension. This correlation exists across all the subprojects and also along the time evolution of the software systems, as new releases are delivered.

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Cited By

Pan WWu WMing HKim DYang ZMa Y(2024)Toward the Fractal Dimension of ClassesACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/368884434:2(1-50)Online publication date: 16-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3688844
Zhu YHuang YJiang NChen L(2021)A New Model of Software Network for Object-Oriented Software System2021 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC)10.1109/SMC52423.2021.9659214(516-522)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/SMC52423.2021.9659214
Pan WLi BLiu JMa YHu B(2018)Analyzing the structure of Java software systems by weighted K-core decompositionFuture Generation Computer Systems10.1016/j.future.2017.09.03983:C(431-444)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.future.2017.09.039
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cover image Information Sciences: an International Journal

Information Sciences: an International Journal Volume 245, Issue

October, 2013

325 pages

ISSN:0020-0255

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Copyright © Elsevier Inc. © 2013.

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Elsevier Science Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 October 2013

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Cited By

Pan WWu WMing HKim DYang ZMa Y(2024)Toward the Fractal Dimension of ClassesACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/368884434:2(1-50)Online publication date: 16-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3688844
Zhu YHuang YJiang NChen L(2021)A New Model of Software Network for Object-Oriented Software System2021 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC)10.1109/SMC52423.2021.9659214(516-522)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/SMC52423.2021.9659214
Pan WLi BLiu JMa YHu B(2018)Analyzing the structure of Java software systems by weighted K-core decompositionFuture Generation Computer Systems10.1016/j.future.2017.09.03983:C(431-444)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.future.2017.09.039
Chaikalis TChatzigeorgiou A(2015)Forecasting Java Software Evolution Trends Employing Network ModelsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2014.238124941:6(582-602)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2014.2381249
Chong CLee S(2015)Analyzing maintainability and reliability of object-oriented software using weighted complex networkJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2015.08.014110:C(28-53)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2015.08.014

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