Download MDS Views: Visualizing Problem Report Data of Large Scale

MDS Views: Visualizing Problem Report Data of Large Scale Software using
Multidimensional scaling
By Michael Fischer and Harald Gall
Summary
MDS Views is a methodology proposed by Fischer and Gall for visualizing the
evolution of software through a finite set of changes. Focusing in on two perspectives,
feature view which demonstrates the coupling between selected features and problem
view which portrays Problem reports within the structure of the software project itself,
are mapped onto a visual two dimensional picture based on the standard graph notation of
edges and nodes. The distance between nodes yields a visual association that represents
the coupling of two distinct features, with the distance itself representing the number of
common files that were changed in modifications of both features. The case studies done
indicate that though the software projects under examination started out as graphs with
few edges, as time progressed the graph migrated to a state where it was nearly fully
connected. An interesting benefit of the method indicated was the exposure of
unforeseen dependencies among feature sets. Using this tool as a post-mortem indicator
of incorrect assumptions from the start of the software project might yield insight into the
evolution of poor software decisions. Another benefit indicated was the ability of this
tool to potentially measure design pattern degradation as the software underwent
evolution.
Ancillary to the work done on creating and expressing the relationships between
features was the data mining required for creation of the information required for the
representation. Though some automated tools were used for extraction and relation
building as well as a mechanism for rating the confidence of the extraction, the relevant
information also needed to be manually processed prior to use. Overall the use of MDS
Views would allow software developers to do either an on-going or aftermath analysis of
the evolution and maintenance of a software product by creating a visualization of the
module coupling as it is altered through time as well as the underlying relations between
features which may not have been exposed prior to the creation of the product.