Empirical investigation in embedded systems: Quality attributes in general, maintainability in particular

Abstract

The quality of software systems is an important aspect, especially for embedded systems, thus strategies and actions for analyzing the trade-off between various quality attributes need to be improved. Objectives:We target firstly to determine which quality attributes are important in embedded systems, and secondly to inquire about maintainability in particular, emphasizing the practices that are associated with it, i.e., coding rules, conventions, documentation, code review, and refactoring. Method:We used interviews and surveys as means to investigate practitioners’ points of view and practices. Applying quantitative and qualitative analysis, we explored a general perspective of quality attributes in embedded systems, followed by specific practices related to the maintainability attribute. Results:At the general perspective level, we learned that the importance of security and safety is extended to all embedded systems, while maintainability remains of major importance, and there is a diversity of methods used to assure the quality of systems throughout the development cycle. At the maintainability-specific level, we learned that code review and refactoring are the most used practices and that the related activities are performed in a variety of ways. Conclusions:Our work recognizes various quality attributes as being important with different priorities, respectively analyses which maintainability-related activities are used.