Synchronised Visualisation of Software Process and Product Artefacts: Concept, Design and Prototype Implementation

• Main Authors: Alshakhouri, Mujtaba, Buchan, Jim, MacDonell, Stephen G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 03-05-2021
• Subjects: Computer Science - Software Engineering
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2105.00705

Information and Software Technology 98(2018), pp.131-145 Context: Most prior software visualisation (SV) research has focused
primarily on making aspects of intangible software product artefacts more
evident. While undoubtedly useful, this focus has meant that software process
visualisation has received far less attention. Objective: This paper presents
Conceptual Visualisation, a novel SV approach that builds on the well-known
CodeCity metaphor by situating software code artefacts alongside their software
development processes, in order to link and synchronise these typically
separate components. Method: While the majority of prior SV research has
focused on representing what is already available in the code (i.e., the
implementation) or information derived from it (i.e., various metrics), the
presented approach instead makes the design concepts and original developers'
intentions -- both significant sources of information in terms of software
development and maintenance -- readily and contextually available in a
visualisation environment that tightly integrates the code artefacts with their
original functional requirements and development activity. Results: Our
approach has been implemented in a prototype tool called ScrumCity with the
proof of concept being demonstrated using six real-world open source systems. A
preliminary case study has further been carried out with real world data.
Conclusion: Conceptual Visualisation, as implemented in ScrumCity, shows early
promise in enabling developers and managers (and potentially other
stakeholders) to traverse and explore multiple aspects of software product and
process artefacts in a synchronised manner, achieving traceability between the
two.