Studying the Relationship Between Source Code Quality and Mobile Platform Dependence
Authors -
Mark, D. Syer;
Meiyappan, Nagappan;
Bram, Adams and
Ahmed, E. Hassan
Venue -
Springer Software Quality Journal Minor Revision Requested on March 11 2014
Related Tags -
Abstract -
Context: The recent meteoric rise in the use of smartphones and other
mobile devices has led to a new class of software applications (i.e., mobile apps).
One reason for this success is the extensive support available to mobile app developers
through the APIs provided by mobile platforms (e.g., Android).
Motivation: In our previous research, we found that mobile apps tend to depend
highly on these platform-specific APIs. High dependence on a particular mobile
platform may introduce instability and defects, as these mobile platforms are
rapidly evolving. Therefore, the extent of platform dependence may be an indicator
of software quality.
Goal: In this paper, we examine the relationship between platform dependence
and defect-proneness of the source code files of an Android app to determine if
software metrics based on platform dependence can be used to prioritize software
quality assurance efforts.
Finding: We find that 1) source code files that are defect-prone have a higher
dependence on the platform than defect-free files and 2) increasing the platform
dependence increases the likelihood of a defect being present in a source code file.
Thus platform dependence may be used to prioritize the most defect-prone source
code files for code reviews and unit testing by the software quality assurance team.
Preprint -
PDF
BibTex -
@article{Syer2014_2,
author = {Mark, D. Syer and Meiyappan, Nagappan and Bram, Adams and Ahmed, E. Hassan},
keyword = {Defect Prediction, Mobile Apps},
title = {Studying the Relationship Between Source Code Quality and Mobile Platform Dependence},
type = {journal},
venue = {Springer Software Quality Journal Minor Revision Requested on March 11 2014}
}