%0 Journal Article %1 kelly06 %A Kelly, Diane %D 2006 %J IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering %K evolution software design %N 5 %P 315--329 %T A Study of Design Characteristics in Evolving Software Using Stability as a Criterion %U http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/trans/ts/&toc=comp/trans/ts/2006/05/e5toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/TSE.2006.42 %V 32 %X There are many ideas in software design that are considered good practice. However, research is still needed to validate their contributions to software maintenance. This paper presents a method for examining software systems that have been actively maintained and used over the long term and are potential candidates for yielding lessons about design. The method relies on a criterion of stability and a definition of distance to flag design characteristics that have potentially contributed to long-term maintainability. It is demonstrated by application to an example of long-lived scientific software. The results from this demonstration show that the method can provide insight into the relative importance of individual elements of a set of design characteristics for the long-term evolution of software.

@article{kelly06, abstract = {There are many ideas in software design that are considered good practice. However, research is still needed to validate their contributions to software maintenance. This paper presents a method for examining software systems that have been actively maintained and used over the long term and are potential candidates for yielding lessons about design. The method relies on a criterion of stability and a definition of distance to flag design characteristics that have potentially contributed to long-term maintainability. It is demonstrated by application to an example of long-lived scientific software. The results from this demonstration show that the method can provide insight into the relative importance of individual elements of a set of design characteristics for the long-term evolution of software.}, added-at = {2006-09-18T06:26:07.000+0200}, author = {Kelly, Diane}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/265c982fa2e0cb991e156a171cdefa23a/neilernst}, citeulike-article-id = {668489}, description = {Not previously uploaded}, interhash = {4320703f9c02dafb5addb86e80ba7638}, intrahash = {65c982fa2e0cb991e156a171cdefa23a}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering}, keywords = {evolution software design}, month = May, number = 5, pages = {315--329}, priority = {3}, timestamp = {2006-09-18T06:26:07.000+0200}, title = {A Study of Design Characteristics in Evolving Software Using Stability as a Criterion}, url = {http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/trans/ts/\&toc=comp/trans/ts/2006/05/e5toc.xml\&DOI=10.1109/TSE.2006.42}, volume = 32, year = 2006 }