caa a22 4500 605495599 CHVBK 20210128100532.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150301xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11219-013-9204-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11219-013-9204-4 Investigating the effect of evolution and refactorings on feature scattering [Elektronische Daten] [Theodore Chaikalis, Alexander Chatzigeorgiou, Georgina Examiliotou] The implementation of a functional requirement is often distributed across several modules posing difficulties to software maintenance. In this paper, we attempt to quantify the extent of feature scattering and study its evolution with the passage of software versions. To this end, we trace the classes and methods involved in the implementation of a feature, apply formal approaches for studying variations across versions, measure whether feature implementation is uniformly distributed and visualize the reuse among features. Moreover, we investigate the impact of refactoring application on feature scattering in order to assess the circumstances under which a refactoring might improve the distribution of methods implementing a feature. The proposed techniques are exemplified for various features on several versions of four open-source projects. Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2013 Feature identification nationallicence Feature scattering nationallicence Program understanding nationallicence Requirements traceability nationallicence Software evolution nationallicence Refactorings nationallicence Chaikalis Theodore University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece aut Chatzigeorgiou Alexander University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece aut Examiliotou Georgina University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece aut Software Quality Journal Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 23/1(2015-03-01), 79-105 0963-9314 23:1<79 2015 23 11219 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-013-9204-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-013-9204-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chaikalis Theodore University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chatzigeorgiou Alexander University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Examiliotou Georgina University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Software Quality Journal Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 23/1(2015-03-01), 79-105 0963-9314 23:1<79 2015 23 11219