A collaborative demonstration of reverse engineering tools

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a collaborative structured demonstration of reverse engineering tools that was presented at a working session at WCRE 2001 in Stuttgart, Germany. A structured demonstration is a hybrid tool evaluation technique that combines elements from experiments, case studies, technology demonstrations, and benchmarking. The essence of the technique is to facilitate learning about software engineering tools using a common set of tasks. The collaborative experience discussed at WCRE involved several peer and complementary technologies that were applied in concert to solve a real life reverse engineering problem. For the most part, the tool developers themselves applied their own tools to this problem. Preliminary results have shown to the research community that we still have much to learn about our tools and how they can be applied as part of a reverse engineering and reengineering process. Consequently, the participants agreed to continue participation in this demonstration beyond the WCRE event.

REFERENCES

• 1: Richard C. Holt , Andreas Winter , Andy Schürr, GXL: Toward a Standard Exchange Format, Proceedings of the Seventh Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE'00), p.162, November 23-25, 2000
• 2: Susan Elliott Sim , Margaret-Anne D. Storey, A Structured Demonstration of Program Comprehension Tools, Proceedings of the Seventh Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE'00), p.184, November 23-25, 2000
• 3: A. Winter. Exchanging Graphs with GXL. Proceedings of Graph Drawing - 9th International Symposium (GD 2001), Vienna, Austria, September, 2001.
• 4: The SORTIE Collaborative Tools Demonstration Project, http://www.csr.uvic.ca/chisel/collab/.
• 5: Wiki web pages, http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiWeb
• 6: Sortie/BC project website, http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/prupert/Research/Date Creek/sortie.htm

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.7 Distribution, Maintenance, and Enhancement
          Subjects: Restructuring, reverse engineering, and reengineering

General Terms:
Experimentation

Keywords:
benchmark, empirical study, program comprehension, reengineering, research methodology, reverse engineering, tool evaluation