A systematic review of empirical software engineering studies that analyze individual changes
Hans Christian, Bente Anda, Erik Arisholm · 2008
Understanding, managing and reducing costs and risks inherent in change are key challenges of software maintenance and evolution, addressed in empirical studies with many different research approaches. Change-based studies analyze data that describes the individual changes that are made to software systems. This approach can be effective in order to discover cost and risk factors that are hidden at more aggregated levels. However, it is not trivial to derive appropriate measures of individual changes for specific measurement goals. The purpose of this review is to improve change- based studies by 1) summarizing how attributes of changes have been measured to reach specific measurement goals, and 2) describing validity issues, and hence improvement areas, for change-based studies. Thirty-four papers conformed to the inclusion criteria. Forty-three attributes of changes were identified, and classified according to a conceptual model that we developed for the purpose of this classification. The goal of each study was to either characterize the evolution process, to assess causal factors of cost and risk, or to predict costs and risks. Effective accumulation of knowledge across change-based studies requires precise definitions of attributes and measures of change. We recommend that new change-based studies base such definitions on the proposed conceptual model.