A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems

It is clear that maintenance is a crucial and very costly process in a software life cycle. Nowadays there are a lot of software systems particularly legacy systems that are always maintained from time to time as new requirements arise. One important source to understand a software system before it...

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Main Author:	Sulaiman, Shahida
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2004
Subjects:	QA76 Computer software
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/3995/1/ShahidaSulaimanPFSKSM2004.pdf
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spelling	my-utm-ep.39952018-01-15T01:03:05Z A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems 2004-07 Sulaiman, Shahida QA76 Computer software It is clear that maintenance is a crucial and very costly process in a software life cycle. Nowadays there are a lot of software systems particularly legacy systems that are always maintained from time to time as new requirements arise. One important source to understand a software system before it is being maintained is through the documentation, particularly system documentation. Unfortunately, not all software systems developed or maintained are accompanied with their reliable and updated documents. In this case, source codes will be the only reliable source for programmers. A number of studies have been carried out in order to assist cognition based on source codes. One way is through tool automation via reverse engineering technique in which source codes will be parsed and the information extracted will be visualized using certain visualization methods. Most software visualization methods use graph as the main element to represent extracted software artifacts. Nevertheless, current methods tend to produce more complicated graphs and do not grant an explicit, document-like re-documentation environment. Hence, this thesis proposes a document-like software visualization method called DocLike Modularized Graph (DMG). The method is realized in a prototype tool named DocLike Viewer that targets on C-based software systems. The main contribution of the DMG method is to provide an explicit structural re-document mechanism in the software visualization tool. Besides, the DMG method provides more level of information abstractions via less complex graph that include inter-module dependencies, inter-program dependencies, procedural abstraction and also parameter passing. The DMG method was empirically evaluated based on the Goal/Question/Metric (GQM) paradigm and the findings depict that the method can improve productivity and quality in the aspect of cognition or program comprehension. A usability study was also conducted and DocLike Viewer had the most positive responses from the software practitioners. 2004-07 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/3995/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/3995/1/ShahidaSulaimanPFSKSM2004.pdf application/pdf en public phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Computer Science and Information System Faculty of Computer Science and Information System
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	QA76 Computer software
spellingShingle	QA76 Computer software Sulaiman, Shahida A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
description	It is clear that maintenance is a crucial and very costly process in a software life cycle. Nowadays there are a lot of software systems particularly legacy systems that are always maintained from time to time as new requirements arise. One important source to understand a software system before it is being maintained is through the documentation, particularly system documentation. Unfortunately, not all software systems developed or maintained are accompanied with their reliable and updated documents. In this case, source codes will be the only reliable source for programmers. A number of studies have been carried out in order to assist cognition based on source codes. One way is through tool automation via reverse engineering technique in which source codes will be parsed and the information extracted will be visualized using certain visualization methods. Most software visualization methods use graph as the main element to represent extracted software artifacts. Nevertheless, current methods tend to produce more complicated graphs and do not grant an explicit, document-like re-documentation environment. Hence, this thesis proposes a document-like software visualization method called DocLike Modularized Graph (DMG). The method is realized in a prototype tool named DocLike Viewer that targets on C-based software systems. The main contribution of the DMG method is to provide an explicit structural re-document mechanism in the software visualization tool. Besides, the DMG method provides more level of information abstractions via less complex graph that include inter-module dependencies, inter-program dependencies, procedural abstraction and also parameter passing. The DMG method was empirically evaluated based on the Goal/Question/Metric (GQM) paradigm and the findings depict that the method can improve productivity and quality in the aspect of cognition or program comprehension. A usability study was also conducted and DocLike Viewer had the most positive responses from the software practitioners.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Sulaiman, Shahida
author_facet	Sulaiman, Shahida
author_sort	Sulaiman, Shahida
title	A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
title_short	A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
title_full	A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
title_fullStr	A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
title_full_unstemmed	A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
title_sort	document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Computer Science and Information System
granting_department	Faculty of Computer Science and Information System
publishDate	2004
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/3995/1/ShahidaSulaimanPFSKSM2004.pdf
_version_	1747814488794464256

A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems

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