Software reflexion models: bridging the gap between design andimplementation

摘要

The artifacts constituting a software system often drift apartnover time. We have developed the software reflexion model technique tonhelp engineers perform various software engineering tasks by exploiting,nrather than removing, the drift between design and implementation. Morenspecifically, the technique helps an engineer compare artifacts bynsummarizing where one artifact (such as a design) is consistent with andninconsistent with another artifact (such as source). The technique cannbe applied to help a software engineer evolve a structural mental modelnof a system to the point that it is “good enough” to be usednfor reasoning about a task at hand. The software reflexion modelntechnique has been applied to support a variety of tasks, includingndesign conformance, change assessment, and an experimental reengineeringnof the million-lines-of-code Microsoft Excel product. We provide anformal characterization of the reflexion model technique, discussnpractical aspects of the approach, relate experiences of applying thenapproach and tools, and place the technique into the context of relatednwork