Computer Science
8 years ago

Refactoring software may not always improve code quality, study finds.

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Does refactoring improve software structural quality? A longitudinal study of 25 projects
Diego Cedrim, Leonardo Sousa, Alessandro Garcia, Rohit Gheyi

Paper Summary

Refactoring code to improve software quality doesn't always work as expected. A study of 25 projects found that most refactoring changes did not reduce or introduce code smells. Only a small percentage of refactoring changes actually removed code smells, while some introduced new ones. Surprisingly, code smells induced by refactoring tended to stick around for a long time before being addressed. This suggests that refactoring may not always lead to the expected improvements in software quality.

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