A theoretical model for capturing the impact of design patterns on quality
Sofia Charalampidou, Antonis Ampatzoglou, Paris Avgeriou, Seren Sencer, Elvira-Maria Arvanitou, Ioannis G. Stamelos · 2017
Design patterns are widely recognized as reusable solutions that can be applied for improving design quality. However, empirical results suggest that patterns may sometimes support and other times hurt a quality attribute. Thus, there is a need for guidance on when a pattern is beneficial and when it is not. To provide such guidance, we propose a theoretical model for understanding the effect of patterns on quality. The obtained results are expected to improve the theoretical body of knowledge on design patterns, and facilitate informed decision making about when to insert or remove a pattern from a system. As an example, we present and discuss the results of modeling and exploring the effect of Decorator instances on quality. The results suggest that Decorator instances that are not expected to evolve through the addition of components in composite objects decrease system cohesion and therefore, modularity and maintainability are weakened.