Solutions

Stopping Software Erosion

The Challenge: Software Maintenance is Extremely Costly

Maintenance, adaptation, and evolution account for up to 80 % of the total cost of software development.

During the maintenance phase, programmers spend half of their time analyzing existing code.

The Cause: Erosion of the Software Architecture

For the initial development of software, a clearly structured architecture is determined and for the most parts also strictly implemented.

Yet, software needs to be adapted repeatedly during its product life cycle. The reasons range from feature requests to the need to fix bugs. Thereby, the initial architecture's guidelines are more and more neglected, especially when there is a high employee turnover. An ever-growing gap arises between the desired architecture and the actual implementation. This process is called erosion of software architecture.

In the beginning, the consequences of this process are often underestimated, and due to the chronic lack of time no measures are taken to stop the erosion of the software architecture. However, without active counter steering, the software will show more and more hidden dependencies.

There is a point when the software is no longer completely comprehensible. Due to this, it becomes very hard to plan, implement, and test changes. It becomes necessary to implement highly complex workarounds which often cause additional hidden dependencies. The code quality declines. Thus, subsequent changes become even more time-consuming. The pressure of time increases constantly.

The symptoms: Reduced effectiveness and efficiency

The symptoms are widely known: delayed releases, budget overruns, quality defects, and so forth.

Over time, the situation worsens. There is a point in time where the software seems doomed. Its reimplementation from scratch seems to be the only way out. However, this option is extremely expensive, risky, and time consuming. The new software first needs to gain all features that the existing software already has. Thus, valuable time for innovation is lost.

Our Solution

The Axivion Bauhaus Suite cures the symptoms and eliminates the cause of the erosion of the software architecture!

Curing Symptoms: Architecture Visualization

Our Architecture Browser gives you direct access to the structural facts of a software. This allows for a fast and detailed comprehension of the structure of a software. Especially unfamiliar source code can easier be maintained and enhanced.

The effects of the architectural erosion are being reduced!

Eliminating the Cause: Architecture Checking

The "as is" architecture of your source code can be compared with the specified architecture (Reflection Analysis). Our software detects violations of the specified architecture. Hidden dependencies are revealed immediately and can thus be avoided from the beginning.

The erosion of the architecture is stopped!

Your Benefit: Increased Effectiveness and Efficiency

With the aid of the Architecture Browser, you can (re)gain the knowledge of your software system very fast.

Your Benefit:

• shorter development times
• lower error ratio
• fewer test cycles

The continuous use of the Architecture Checking guarantees you, that the source code's architecture is always consistent with the specified architecture.

Your Benefit:

• improved code quality (avoidance of workarounds)
• extended lifetime of your software due to extended maintainability (protection of investment)
• shorter periods of vocational adjustment
• more precise forecasting of development times
• more accurate project planning

What Gets Measured Gets Done

You can only set and enforce quality standards if you are able to check whether they are adhered to. Our tools offer you extensive possibilities to do that.

Metrics

Metrics can be used as indicators for the code quality. For example, you can specify a certain level of complexity that must not be exceeded.

Style Checks

The adherence to style guides assures that the code always has a certain standard. With our tools, you can automatically check whether there are any violations.

Structural Checks

Whenever there are violations against the specified architecture, there arises an ever-growing gap between the desired architecture and the actual implementation. This process is called erosion of software architecture. With our tool, you can check for violations against your specified architecture.

For project controlling and application potfolio management (APM), all these checks can also be integrated into a quality control dashboard. This way, you can for example do trend analyses. The results of our analyses can be exported in any kind of dashboard. We recommend using the dashboard that is provided by our partner SQS Software Quality Systems AG.

With our Scripting Add-On, it is possible to implement additional customized metrics and style checks for your individual needs. Thus, you can determine what is important to check, without being limited by the tool.

The Axivion Bauhaus Suite is the ideal tool for computer aided software reengineering (CARE)

The Axivion Bauhaus Suite offers various query possibilities that facilitate software reengineering. For example, it is possible to show the dependencies between components of the software. You can also get the information how the components are embedded within the system and what needs to be wrapped in order to reuse them. All this information allows you to estimate whether it is relatively easy or complex to reuse a certain part of a software system.

Outsourcing, Offshoring, and Insourcing

Final quality inspections of off-site development projects

Do not settle for black box testing of externally developed software. See behind the curtain! You can check the quality of the delivered source code by using metrics and checking its architectural conformity. This also allows you to estimate the source's maintainability.

Quality monitoring in off-site development projects

Already specify the required code quality and the architectural specification at the award of contract. You can then continuously check whether your requirements are met during the development process. Whenever problems might emerge, you are in the position to countersteer immediately and thus avoid unpleasant surprises.

Insourcing of off-site development projects

Our tools offer you support for the maintenance of software. It especially enables you to quickly comprehend unfamiliar source code, which is a great benefit when having to handle externally developed software.

When using our tools, you are in the position to take over and maintain externally developed software. This way, you do not get dependent on your contractor.