Benefits and costs of enabling variability and traceability in source code via feature annotations
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Typ
Examensarbete på grundnivå
Program
Datateknik 180 hp (högskoleingenjör)
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Rymo, Love
Abunaj, Fadi
Modellbyggare
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ISSN
Volymtitel
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Sammanfattning
Features, which drive the advancement of software systems, are often obscured in
modern software projects due to the lack of clear and location-specific documentation.
This absence creates significant challenges in software development, notably
in time and resource efficiency. This lack of explicit feature documentation often
leads to time-consuming efforts in locating features. This study tackles the problem
by exploring an innovative approach: embedding feature annotations directly in the
source code. It investigates both the benefits and potential costs associated with
this practice, filling a gap in the current body of literature. To empirically evaluate
this approach, a specialized tool, that we will refer to as an ’annotation logger’ was
developed. The goal of the tool is to measure the time efficiency of feature annotations.
Despite a few minor inaccuracies, the results of this evaluation demonstrated
the tool’s reliability in gathering meaningful data. The findings suggest that, while
introducing some additional overhead, feature annotations could fundamentally enhance
the software development process by increasing location-specific clarity and
reducing search times.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
software product lines , traceability , feature location , embedded annotations