Software architecture recovery using Conway's law

ABSTRACT

Architectural documentation is recognised as a mechanism for improving software quality and reducing development costs. However, many existing systems do not have any architectural documentation. To obtain the benefits of accurate architectural documentation, research suggests that we use tools to recover the architecture of a system, then continue to use these tools to keep the documentation up to date. This paper describes how the organization of system developers can be extracted and analysed to form an ownership architecture. According to Conway's law, the ownership architecture serves as a predictor of the concrete (as built) architecture, and also provides facts about the location of live design knowledge. To evaluate the usefulness of ownership architectures, we examined three large software systems: Linux¹ (800 KLOC), Mozilla (1.5 MLOC), and a commercial software development system (3.8 MLOC). Experience with these systems indicates that ownership architectures can be a powerful addition to a reverse engineering endeavour.

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INDEX TERMS

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

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Systems analysis and design

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Theory