article

Object-oriented cohesion subjectivity amongst experienced and novice developers: an empirical study

Authors:

Steve Counsell,

Emilia MendesAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, Volume 31, Issue 5

Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/1163514.1163530

Published: 01 September 2006 Publication History

Abstract

The concept of software cohesion in both the procedural and object-oriented paradigm is well known and documented. What is not so well known or documented is the perception of what empirically constitutes a cohesive 'unit' by software engineers. In this paper, we describe an empirical investigation using object-oriented (OO) classes as a basis. Twenty-four subjects (drawn from IT experienced and novice groups) were asked to rate ten classes sampled from two industrial systems in terms of their overall cohesiveness; a class environment was used to carry out the study. Three hypotheses were investigated as part of the study, relating to class size, the role of comment lines and the differences between the two groups in terms of how they rated cohesion. Several key results were observed. Firstly, class size (when expressed in terms of number of methods) only influenced the perception of cohesion by novice subjects. Secondly, well-commented classes were rated more highly amongst IT experienced than novice subjects. Thirdly, results suggest strongly that cohesion comprises a combination of various class factors including low coupling, small numbers of attributes and well-commented methods, rather than any single, individual class feature per se. Finally, if the research supports the view that cohesion is a subjective concept reflecting a cognitive combination of class features then cohesion is also a surrogate for class comprehension.

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Object-oriented cohesion subjectivity amongst experienced and novice developers: an empirical study

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cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Volume 31, Issue 5

September 2006

110 pages

ISSN:0163-5948

DOI:10.1145/1163514

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2006 Authors.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 September 2006

Published in SIGSOFT Volume 31, Issue 5

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Cited By

Moreira GSantos J(2020)Applying coupling and cohesion concepts in object-oriented software: a controlled experimentProceedings of the XIX Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3439961.3439969(1-10)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3439961.3439969
Roy DFakhoury SLee JArnaoudova V(2020)A Model to Detect Readability Improvements in Incremental ChangesProceedings of the 28th International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3387904.3389255(25-36)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3387904.3389255
Fakhoury SRoy DHassan SArnaoudova VGuéhéneuc YKhomh FSarro F(2019)Improving source code readabilityProceedings of the 27th International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1109/ICPC.2019.00014(2-12)Online publication date: 25-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICPC.2019.00014
Pantiuchina JLanza MBavota G(2018)Improving Code: The (Mis) Perception of Quality Metrics2018 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME)10.1109/ICSME.2018.00017(80-91)Online publication date: Oct-2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSME.2018.00017
da Silva BSant'Anna CChavez CPeternier ABinder WErnst EHirschfeld R(2014)An empirical study on how developers reason about module cohesionProceedings of the 13th international conference on Modularity10.1145/2577080.2577096(121-132)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2014
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Bavota GDit BOliveto RDi Penta MPoshyvanyk DDe Lucia ANotkin DCheng BPohl K(2013)An empirical study on the developers' perception of software couplingProceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Software Engineering10.5555/2486788.2486879(692-701)Online publication date: 18-May-2013
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Bavota GDit BOliveto RDi Penta MPoshyvanyk DDe Lucia A(2013)An empirical study on the developers' perception of software coupling2013 35th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)10.1109/ICSE.2013.6606615(692-701)Online publication date: May-2013
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE.2013.6606615
Breuker DDerriks JBrunekreef JRößling GNaps TSpannagel C(2011)Measuring static quality of student codeProceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/1999747.1999754(13-17)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1999747.1999754

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