Program and system comprehension are vital parts of the software maintenance process. We discuss the need for both perspectives and describe two methods that may be integrated to provide a smooth transition in understanding from the system level to the program level. Results from a qualitative survey of expert industrial software maintainers, their information needs and requirements when comprehending software are initially presented. We then review existing software tools which facilitate system level and program comprehension. Two successful methods from the fields of data mining and concept assignment are discussed, each addressing some of these requirements. We also describe how these methods can be coupled to produce a broader software comprehension method which partly satisfies all the requirements. Future directions including the closer integration of the techniques are also identified.
26th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference
year
2002
journal
Computer Software and Applications Conference, 2002. COMPSAC 2002. Proceedings. 26th Annual International
pages
427--432
comment
- This paper was ok, but fairly broad. It had a good review of the literature on program comprehension, but then it gets bogged down discussing two of the author's tools for low-level program understanding and higher level system models.
- the notion of combining the two is solid, but I don't know much of either tool.
%0 Conference Paper
%1 tjortis02
%A Tjortjis, C.
%A Gold, N.
%A Layzell, P.
%A Bennett, K.
%B 26th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference
%D 2002
%J Computer Software and Applications Conference, 2002. COMPSAC 2002. Proceedings. 26th Annual International
%K modeling software comprehension
%P 427--432
%T From system comprehension to program comprehension
%U http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1045039
%X Program and system comprehension are vital parts of the software maintenance process. We discuss the need for both perspectives and describe two methods that may be integrated to provide a smooth transition in understanding from the system level to the program level. Results from a qualitative survey of expert industrial software maintainers, their information needs and requirements when comprehending software are initially presented. We then review existing software tools which facilitate system level and program comprehension. Two successful methods from the fields of data mining and concept assignment are discussed, each addressing some of these requirements. We also describe how these methods can be coupled to produce a broader software comprehension method which partly satisfies all the requirements. Future directions including the closer integration of the techniques are also identified.
@inproceedings{tjortis02,
abstract = {Program and system comprehension are vital parts of the software maintenance process. We discuss the need for both perspectives and describe two methods that may be integrated to provide a smooth transition in understanding from the system level to the program level. Results from a qualitative survey of expert industrial software maintainers, their information needs and requirements when comprehending software are initially presented. We then review existing software tools which facilitate system level and program comprehension. Two successful methods from the fields of data mining and concept assignment are discussed, each addressing some of these requirements. We also describe how these methods can be coupled to produce a broader software comprehension method which partly satisfies all the requirements. Future directions including the closer integration of the techniques are also identified.},
added-at = {2006-03-24T16:34:33.000+0100},
author = {Tjortjis, C. and Gold, N. and Layzell, P. and Bennett, K.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/264da3832737466a794ec1546aa2c2d68/neilernst},
booktitle = {26th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference},
citeulike-article-id = {384174},
comment = {- This paper was ok, but fairly broad. It had a good review of the literature on program comprehension, but then it gets bogged down discussing two of the author's tools for low-level program understanding and higher level system models.
- the notion of combining the two is solid, but I don't know much of either tool.},
description = {sdasda},
interhash = {913ed2eb6efb6ac6ff2e4e82a8ca6e0b},
intrahash = {64da3832737466a794ec1546aa2c2d68},
journal = {Computer Software and Applications Conference, 2002. COMPSAC 2002. Proceedings. 26th Annual International},
keywords = {modeling software comprehension},
pages = {427--432},
priority = {0},
timestamp = {2006-03-24T16:34:33.000+0100},
title = {From system comprehension to program comprehension},
url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1045039},
year = 2002
}