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Quality Reviewer evaluates regressions and understands changes in the source code using automated Software Metrics visualization (SW complexity, size and structure Metrics, Halstead Metrics, ISO 9126 maintainability, ISO 25010, ISO 19515, Chidamber & Kemerer, SQALE), as well as Effort Estimation (APPW, AFP, QSM FP, SRM FP, COSMIC, COCOMO, Revic) and reporting features. It helps to keep code entropy under control, be it in house development or outsourced maintenance projects.
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Where: SDC is the Static Defect Count per severity.
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The Application Architecture gives you a roadmap and best practices to follow when building an application, so that you end up with a well-structured app. Quality Reviewer is able to create a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) and a
Call Graph
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DSM-Design Structure Matrix
An example of Quality Reviewer’s automatically generated Design Structure Matrix is shown below:
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A Design Structure Matrix (DSM) is made by two parts
A matrix to visualize dependencies
Algorithms which can be applied on the matrix to discover e.g. layering in the software.
The DSM consists of a matrix with the same elements in the rows and columns
The hierarchy of packages and elements is visible on the left.
The relations between the elements are shown in the cells.
In a DSM, the hierarchy can also be folded in whole or in part. The relational strengths of the collapsed cells are simply combined. As a result, the DSM will become more compact, but will still remain correct in terms of content.
In this way it is possible to display a system with thousands of elements and still keep the overview.
DSM Architectural Discovery
By applying a partitioning algorithm on the DSM, the layering of the software will be discovered by Quality Reviewer during the Static Analysys. Such an algorithm tries to reorder the DSM in such a way that as many relationships as possible come under the diagonal.
After partioning elements with many inbound relationships (providers) have shifted to the bottom, while the elements with many outgoing relationships (consumers) have shifted to the top.
Cyclic relations can be easily spotted, because the type of relations remain above the diagonal.
DSM Assist in refactoring
A DSM can be used to improve the dependency structure. One can think of:
Removing cyclic dependencies.
Improving the cohesiveness of a component by move elements to other component were the have stronger relations.
In the matrix we can move an element to another component or layer, combine it with other elements or split and then recalculate all dependencies to see if this yields a better dependency structure.
After recalculating the dependencies it can be seen that the cyclical relationship between the presentation and application layer has disappeared.
The advantages of such an impact analysis are particularly evident in improvement scenarios that take place at the architectural level and thus affect multiple components. Without the use of a DSM, such analysis are unreliable, because the intended and the actual software architecture often do not match.
DSM-Supported Languages
.NET: C# and vb.NET Assembly
JAVA, Clojure, Groovy, Kotlin JAR files
C/C++ Source and Header files
UML in Sparx System Enterprise Architect format
DSI Model. Two DSI model files can be compared
A DSI file represent an analyzer’s output. Each code analyzer must export its DSM results to DSI file. To ensure that the Quality Reviewer can import this file, it must conform the DSI file XSD schema below:
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DSI file is a way to import 3rd-party analyzer’s DSM output to Quality Reviewer.
Call Graph
Starting from source code, a Call Graph is automatically generated by Quality Reviewer showing how classes and functions call each other within an application:
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Accidental Complexity
Blob Class
Code Review Candidate
Complex Class
Excessive Coupling
Excessive Overloading
Indecent Exposure
Large Class
Lava Flow
Long Method Class
Long Parameter List
Poltergeists
Speculative Generality
Spaghetti Code
Lasagna Code
Architecture Anti-Patterns
Bloated Service
Dead Component
Dead Element
Deficient Encapsulation
Chatty Service
Data Service
Low Cohesive Operations
Stovepipe Enterprise (Megaservice)
Jumble
Vendor Lock-In
Combinatorial Explosion
Duplication
Deficient Names
Documentation
DuplicationFeature Envy
Hub-like Modularization
Weakened Modularity
Functional Decomposition
Lasagna Code
Lazy Component (Class)
Refactoring CandidatesSpaghetti Code
Swiss Army Knife
Further to the above available Software Development and Architecture Anti-Patterns, you can create your own custom Anti-Patterns based on metrics’ search queries, using graphs to interpret the impact of the values. When metrics based searches provide quick access to elements of interest, saving these queries serve as input for custom analysis.
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