Understanding Software Architecture Erosion: A Systematic Mapping Study
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by
Ruiyin Li, Peng Liang, Mohamed Soliman, Paris Avgeriou
2021
Abstract
Architecture Erosion (AEr) can adversely affect software development and has
received significant attention in the last decade. However, there is an absence
of a comprehensive understanding of the state of research about the reasons and
consequences of AEr, and the countermeasures to address AEr. This work aims at
systematically investigating, identifying, and analyzing the reasons,
consequences, and ways of detecting and handling AEr. With 73 studies included,
the main results are: (1) AEr manifests not only through architectural
violations and structural issues, but also causing problems in software quality
and during software evolution, (2) non-technical reasons that cause AEr should
receive the same attention as technical reasons, and practitioners should raise
awareness of the grave consequences of AEr thereby taking actions to tackle AEr
related issues, (3) a spectrum of approaches, tools, and measures have been
proposed and employed to detect and tackle AEr, and (4) three categories of
difficulties and five categories of lessons learned on tackling AEr were
identified. The results can provide researchers a comprehensive understanding
of AEr and help practitioners handle AEr and improve the sustainability of
their architecture. More empirical studies are required to investigate the
practices of detecting and addressing AEr in industrial settings.
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