Article

Prioritising Refactoring Using Code Bad Smells

Authors:

Min Zhang,

Nathan Baddoo,

Paul Wernick,

Tracy HallAuthors Info & Claims

ICSTW '11: Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Fourth International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation Workshops

Pages 458 - 464

https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSTW.2011.69

Published: 21 March 2011 Publication History

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between six of Fowler et al.'s Code Bad Smells (Duplicated Code, Data Clumps, Switch Statements, Speculative Generality, Message Chains, and Middle Man) and software faults. In this paper we discuss how our results can be used by software developers to prioritise refactoring. In particular we suggest that source code containing Duplicated Code is likely to be associated with more faults than source code containing the other five Code Bad Smells. As a consequence, Duplicated Code should be prioritised for refactoring. Source code containing Message Chains seems to be associated with a high number of faults in some situations. Consequently it is another Code Bad Smell which should be prioritised for refactoring. Source code containing only one of the Data Clumps, Switch Statements, Speculative Generality, or Middle Man Bad Smell is not likely to be fault-prone. As a result these Code Bad Smells could be put into a lower refactoring priority.

Cited By

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Agnihotri MChug A(2024)Severity Factor (SF)Journal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.259036:5Online publication date: 25-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/smr.2590
Verma RKumar KVerma H(2023)Code smell prioritization in object‐oriented software systemsJournal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.253635:12Online publication date: 29-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/smr.2536
Chen ZChen LMa WZhou XZhou YXu B(2018)Understanding metric-based detectable smells in Python softwareInformation and Software Technology10.5555/3163583.316367094:C(14-29)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3163583.3163670
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Prioritising Refactoring Using Code Bad Smells
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development process management

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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ICSTW '11: Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Fourth International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation Workshops

March 2011

662 pages

ISBN:9780769543451

Publisher

IEEE Computer Society

United States

Publication History

Published: 21 March 2011

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Cited By

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Agnihotri MChug A(2024)Severity Factor (SF)Journal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.259036:5Online publication date: 25-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/smr.2590
Verma RKumar KVerma H(2023)Code smell prioritization in object‐oriented software systemsJournal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.253635:12Online publication date: 29-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/smr.2536
Chen ZChen LMa WZhou XZhou YXu B(2018)Understanding metric-based detectable smells in Python softwareInformation and Software Technology10.5555/3163583.316367094:C(14-29)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3163583.3163670
Fontana FFerme VSpinelli SKruchten PNord ROzkaya IVisser J(2012)Investigating the impact of code smells debt on quality code evaluationProceedings of the Third International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt10.5555/2666036.2666039(15-22)Online publication date: 5-Jun-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2666036.2666039

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On experimenting refactoring tools to remove code smells

Code Bad Smells: a review of current knowledge

An ontology-based taxonomy of bad code smells

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