Assessment of optimum refactoring sequence to improve the software quality of object-oriented software

Abstract

Software Maintenance is the most expensive phase of Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and therefore requires maximum effort and time. Any modification in the source code also introduces some bad smell which may be harmful for the design of the source code. These bad smells get accumulated with every phase of the SDLC if not corrected timely, therefore, they need to be removed as early as possible with the help of refactoring which improves the internal attributes of the software without affecting the external attributes. In order to complete the software under time and budget constraints, authors have attempted to determine the optimum sequence of refactoring technique (RT) in advance so that maintenance team can directly apply them in order to remove the bad smell which further enhances the quality of the software. Authors have applied different types of Hill- Climbing algorithms. Results shows that that the Steepest-Ascent Hill-Climbing algorithm is the most promising algorithm in finding the most optimum refactoring sequence with 20% improvement in the maintainability value.