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Aligning the Normalized Systems Theorems with Existing Heuristic Software Engineering Knowledge

Authors:
Peter De Bruyn
Geert Dierckx
Herwig Mannaert

Keywords: Normalized Systems; Code Smells; Heuristic Knowledge; Knowledge Management

Abstract:
Software applications used by contemporary organizations have to be expendable for incorporating additional functional requirements, as well as adaptable regarding ever changing user requirements. As this evolvability has frequently be noted to be lacking in most information systems, Normalized Systems (NS) theory has recently proposed a framework on evolvable modularity. Based on the concept of systems theoretic stability, NS formulates a number theorems, constituting a set of formally proven necessary conditions in order to obtain such evolvability in modular structures. These theorems were argued to strongly align with heuristic (often tacit) best-practice knowledge of experienced software developers. In order to further validate this claim, the present paper will investigate the degree in which the NS theorems align with best-practice software engineering guidelines based on the set of 22 “bad smells in code” as defined by Fowler and Beck. The analysis shows that the avoidance of the code smells indeed largely aligns with the Normalized Systems theorems. While 14 of the guidelines seem to be reflected by the NS theorems, 4 of them seem to be unrelated to the theorems and another set of 4 code smells seems to be contradicting with NS reasoning.

Pages: 84 to 89

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: November 18, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4235

ISBN: 978-1-61208-230-1

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dates: from November 18, 2012 to November 23, 2012