Determining the cost-quality trade-off for automated software traceability

Egyed, Alexander; Biffl, Stefan; Heindl, Matthias; GrÃ¼nbacher, Paul

doi:10.1145/1101908.1101970

Determining the cost-quality trade-off for automated software traceability

by Alexander Egyed, Stefan Biffl, Matthias Heindl, Paul GrÃ¼nbacher

Abstract:

Major software development standards mandate the establishment of trace links among software artifacts such as requirements, architectural elements, or source code without explicitly stating the required level of detail of these links. However, the level of detail vastly affects the cost and quality of trace link generation and important applications of trace analysis such as conflict analysis, consistency checking, or change impact analysis. In this paper, we explore these cost-quality trade-offs with three case study systems from different contexts - the open-source ArgoUML modeling tool, an industrial route-planning system, and a movie player. We report the cost-quality trade-off of automated trace generation with the Trace Analyzer approach and discuss its expected impact onto several applications that consume its trace information. In the study we explore simple techniques to predict and manipulate the cost-benefit trade-off with threshold-based filtering. We found that (a) 80% of the benefit comes from only 20% of the cost and (b) weak trace links are predominantly false trace links and can be efficiently eliminated through thresholds.

Reference:

Alexander Egyed, Stefan Biffl, Matthias Heindl, Paul GrÃ¼nbacher, "Determining the cost-quality trade-off for automated software traceability", ACM, pp. 360-363, 2005.

Bibtex Entry:

@Conference{DBLP:conf/kbse/EgyedBHG05,
  Title                    = {Determining the cost-quality trade-off for automated software traceability},
  Author                   = {Alexander Egyed and Stefan Biffl and Matthias Heindl and Paul GrÃ¼nbacher},
  Booktitle                = {Proceedings 20th IEEE/ACM Int'l Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2005), November 7-11, Long Beach, CA, USA},
  Year                     = {2005},
  Editor                   = {David F. Redmiles and Thomas Ellman and Andrea Zisman},
  Pages                    = {360-363},
  Publisher                = {ACM},

  Abstract                 = {Major software development standards mandate the establishment of trace links among software artifacts such as requirements, architectural elements, or source code without explicitly stating the required level of detail of these links. However, the level of detail vastly affects the cost and quality of trace link generation and important applications of trace analysis such as conflict analysis, consistency checking, or change impact analysis. In this paper, we explore these cost-quality trade-offs with three case study systems from different contexts - the open-source ArgoUML modeling tool, an industrial route-planning system, and a movie player. We report the cost-quality trade-off of automated trace generation with the Trace Analyzer approach and discuss its expected impact onto several applications that consume its trace information. In the study we explore simple techniques to predict and manipulate the cost-benefit trade-off with threshold-based filtering. We found that (a) 80% of the benefit comes from only 20% of the cost and (b) weak trace links are predominantly false trace links and can be efficiently eliminated through thresholds.},
  Doi                      = {10.1145/1101908.1101970},
  File                     = {Determining the Cost-Quality Trade-Off for Automated Software Traceability:Conferences\\ASE 2005 - Determining the Cost-Quality Trade-off for Automated Software Traceability\\Determining the Cost-Quality Trade-Off for Automated Software Traceability.pdf:PDF},
  Keywords                 = {traceability},
  Owner                    = {paul},
  Researchr                = {http://researchr.org/publication/EgyedBHG05},
  Timestamp                = {2015.09.12}
}