Perspectives on automated correction of bad smells
J.P. Pérez, Yania Crespo · 2009
Keeping a software system conformant with a desired architecture and consistent with good design principles is a recurring task during the software evolution process. Deviations from good design principles can manifest in the form of bad smells: problems in the system's structure that can negatively affect software quality factors.Many authors have worked in identifying bad smells and in removing them with refactorings: tools have been built to suggest refactorings; successful approaches to detect bad smells have been developed, etc.. We present a comprehensive and historical review on this subject, in order to model the current state of the art and to identify the open challenges, current trends and research opportunities.We also propose a technique based on automated planning, aimed at taking one step forward in the automatic improvement of a system's structure. This proposal will allow computing complex refactoring sequences which can be directed to the achievement of a certain objective, such as the correction of bad smells.