This document discusses logical dependencies and their identification and applications. It begins with definitions of different types of dependencies, including structural and logical dependencies. It then describes various studies that have identified logical dependencies by analyzing changes in version control systems over time. These logical dependencies provide additional insight beyond structural dependencies alone. The document outlines applications of logical dependencies, such as change impact analysis, refactoring detection, and understanding coordination needs. It acknowledges challenges in fully understanding influencing factors and calls for further research.

1. UNCOVERING HIDDEN RELATIONSHIPS
FROM PAST CHANGES:
LOGICAL DEPENDENCIES AND ITS APPLICATIONS
Marco Aurélio Gerosa / Gustavo Ansaldi
Oliva
Computer Science Dept. - University of São Paulo
{gerosa,goliva}@ime.usp.br
Kyoto Research Park
Kyoto, Japan
MSR Asia Summit 2013
October 28th, 2013

2. Dependencies

3. Structural dependencies
3/31
doThisForMe()
ClassA
B, I need your help
to do my work. Could
you do this task for
me?
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
ClassB
Hummm, someone is
asking me to do
something. Let’s do
it!

4. Software dependencies in
general
4/31

A uses B if correct execution of B may be necessary for A to
complete the task described in its specification [Parnas, 1979].

A depends on B if the last is needed to compile or link A
[Lakos, 1996].

A dependency relation means that the semantics of the
depending elements is semantically or structurally
dependent on the definition of the supplier element [UML
Formal Specification].
A dependency means that a client element has knowledge of
A
B
the supplier element and a change in the supplier may affect
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)


5. Dependencies can be harmful
5/31
B
H
C
A
G
F
D
E
• More dependencies, more
maintenance effort [Banker et
al.1998].
• More dependencies, more
defects [Cataldo et al. 2009].
• Dependencies can lead to
negative ripple effects
[Pressman, 2001]
ClassC
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
doStuff()
ClassA
doThisForMe()
ClassB

6. Dependencies may be hard to
identify
6/31



Publisher/subscriber, polymorphism, clones, cross
cutting concerns, semantic relations etc.
Unrecognized dependencies result in a higher
number of defects [Herbsleb et al. 2006].
A dependency means that a client element has
knowledge of the supplier element and a change
in the supplier may affect the client
[Larman, 2004].
Dependency
Change
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

7. Logical dependencies
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


Files frequently changed together share some sort
of dependency [Gall et al. 1998]
Logical dependencies better predict failures and
quality compared to syntactic dependencies
[Cataldo et al. 2009]
Developers should focus on identifying
less-explicit relationships rather than obvious and
explicit syntactic dependencies [Cataldo, 2010]
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
A
B

8. Collaborative filtering
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Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

9. Social aspects matter
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Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

10. How to identify logical
dependencies
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
A logical dependency from A (client) to B (provider) occurs
when changes to B are done together with changes to A
A
Strong Logical dependency from B to A
(the opposite is a much weaker
dependency)
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
80%
40%
B
A logical dependency denotes an implicit
and evolutionary relationship between
software artifacts

11. Clustering Classes
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Clustering classes based on
modification records [Ball et al.,
1997]
Logical dependencies
characterized as the probability
of 2 classes changing together
The cluster identified semanticrelated classes
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
Thomas Ball, Yung-Min Kim, Adam Porter, Harvey Siy. If Your
Version Control System Could Talk... Presented at the Workshop
on Process Modelling and Empirical Studies of Software
Engineering, ICSE 97, May 1997, MA, Boston

12. Logical coupling based on releases periods
12
Gall et al. [1998] proposed an
approach for logical
dependency identification
 “Our technique reveals hidden
dependencies not evident in
the source code, identifies
modules that should undergo
restructuring, and is based on
minimal amount of data”
 Use of the term for the first
time
Harald Gall, Karin Hajek, and Mehdi Jazayeri. 1998. Detection of

Logical Coupling Based on Product Release History. In Proceedings of
the International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM '98).
IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 190-198.
A.ab.144 <1,2,4,7>
C.bc.201 <1,2,4,7>
[subsystem.module.program]
Coupling among subsystems [Gall et

13. Grouping consecutive changes in CVS
repositories
13


Gall et al. [2003] defined
an approach with a fixed
time window to capture
logical dependencies in
CVS repositories
Design flaws could be
discovered without any
analysis of source code
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
Class 13.c.18.A was 21 times checked in
together

14. Association rules and sliding-time window
14

Zimmerman et al. [2005] formalized logical
dependencies as association rules



Frequency
Support
Confidence
They used a sliding-time window to recover change
transactions from CVS
 Correct prediction of more than 70% of following
changes
Thomas Zimmermann, Peter Weissgerber, Stephan Diehl, and Andreas Zeller. 2005. Mining Version Histories to Guide

Software Changes. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 31, 6 (June 2005), 429-445. DOI=10.1109/TSE.2005.72

15. 15
After the programmer has made some changes to the source (above), ROSE suggests locations (below)
where, in similar transactions in the past, further changes were made [Zimmerman et al., 2005]

16. Where are we?
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




What are Logical Dependencies?
Identification of Logical Dependencies
Applications of Logical Dependencies
Our Research on Logical Dependencies
The Road Ahead
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

17. Evolution Radar
17/35

Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
Marco D'Ambros, Michele Lanza, and Mircea Lungu. 2009.
Visualizing Co-Change Information with the Evolution Radar.
IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 35, 5 (September 2009), 720-735.

18. Coordination requirements
18/35



Organizations often cope with complex tasks by
dividing them into smaller interdependent work
units and then assigning such units to teams
Coordination among teams arises as a response
to such interdependent work units
Logical dependencies were applied to determine
coordination requirements among developers
Marcelo Cataldo, Patrick A. Wagstrom, James D. Herbsleb, and Kathleen M.
Carley. 2006. Identification of coordination requirements: implications for the
Design of collaboration and awareness tools. In Proceedings of the 2006
Conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW '06).

19. Applications
19/35



Pinzger et al. [2005] showed that it facilitates
the detection of potential refactoring
candidates.
D’Ambros et al. [2006] showed that logical
dependencies improved bug prediction models
Breu and Zimmermann [2006] used it to
identify and rank crosscutting concerns in
software systems.
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

20. And more…
20

Logical dependencies have also been employed to







The impact on failures [Cataldo et al., 2009]
Change prediction and change impact analysis [Kagdi et al., 2007]
Uncover cross-cutting concerns [Canfora et al., 2006]
Uncover design flaws and opportunities for
refactoring, restructuring, reenginering [Beyer & Hassan, 2006]
Understand and evaluate software architecture [Zimmermman et
al., 2003]
Maintain documentation (internationalization, etc.) [Kagdi et
al., 2006]
…
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

21. Where are we?
21/31





What are Logical Dependencies?
Foundation of Logical Dependencies
Applications of Logical Dependencies
Our Research on Logical Dependencies
The Road Ahead
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

22. Structural vs logical
dependencies
22/31


How do structural and logical
dependencies relate?
Analysis of commits of the ASF showed
that:



Dependency
93% of the logical dependencies did not
involve structural dependencies
95% of the structural dependencies did not
imply in a logical dependency
Structural dependencies do not frequently
lead to logical dependencies (!)
Gustavo Ansaldi Oliva and Marco Aurelio Gerosa. 2011. On the Interplay between Structural and
Logical Dependencies in Open-Source Software. In Proceedings of the 2011 25th Brazilian
Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES '11). IEEE Computer
Change

23. The origins of Logical
Dependencies
23/31
Gustavo A. Oliva, Francisco W.S. Santana, Marco A. Gerosa, and
Cleidson R.B. de Souza. 2011. Towards a classification of logical
dependencies origins: a case study. In Proceedings of the 12th
International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution and the
7th annual ERCIM Workshop on Software Evolution (IWPSE-EVOL

24. improve logical dependencies
identification
24/31
Commit <> change
 The implementation of a single
change may span consecutive
and closely related commits
 Application of the CVS sliding
time window approach
[Zimmerman et al., 2004] to group
timely-close and
semantically-related
change-sets, maintaining
repository consistency
Oliva, G. A., Santana, F., Gerosa, M. A., Souza, C. (2012), “Preprocessing Change-Sets to Improve
 We were able to group ~10% of
Logical Dependencies Identification”, Sixth International Workshop on Software Quality and
Maintainability (SQM 2012)
all commits in the ASF


25. Next steps
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


Develop a framework for the identification of
logical dependencies
Expand previous studies
Survey about logical dependencies
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

26. Where are we?
26/31





What are Logical Dependencies?
Foundation of Logical Dependencies
Applying Logical Dependencies
Our Research on Logical Dependencies
The Road Ahead
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

27. Terminology
27/31

Different terms have often been used interchangeably

Logical dependencies or coupling

Change dependencies or coupling

Evolutionary dependencies or coupling

Historical dependencies or coupling

Co-changes
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

28. And what happens between
commits?
28
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)
[Robbes et

29. Challenges: Understanding Influencing
Factors
29/31

Improve the identification of logical
dependencies
 Commit
habits
 The influence of the chosen technology (VCS)
 The nature of changes
 Period of analysis
 Filtering options
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

30. Summary
30/31

Logical dependencies have been applied for a
variety of purposes
 Useful
to better understand software and
organizational aspects
 Complements existing
approaches, techniques, and tools
 Needs more investigation on its calculation
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

31. Thank you for your attention
31/31
Marco Aurélio
Gerosa
Gustavo Ansaldi
Twitter: {@gerosa_marco,@golivax}
gerosa@ime.usp.br
Oliva
golivax@gmail.com
Software Engineering &
Collaborative Systems Research
http://lapessc.ime.usp.br/

32. References
32/31







D. L. Parnas. 1979. Designing Software for Ease of Extension and Contraction. IEEE Trans.
Softw. Eng. 5, 2 (March 1979), 128-138. DOI=10.1109/TSE.1979.234169
John Lakos. 1996. Large-Scale C++ Software Design. Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co.,
Inc., Redwood City, CA, USA
[UML Formal Specification] Retrieved from
http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/formal/uml.htm
Craig Larman. 2004. Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis
and Design and Iterative Development (3rd Edition). Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ,
USA
Marco D'Ambros and Michele Lanza. 2006. Reverse Engineering with Logical Coupling. In
Proceedings of the 13th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE '06). IEEE
Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 189-198. DOI=10.1109/WCRE.2006.51
Banker, R., et al. Software Development Practices, Software Complexity, and Software
Maintenance Performance: A Field Study. Management Science 40(4): 433–450.
Romain Robbes. Of Change and Software. Phd Thesis. University of Lugano.
Some references may be missing, please enter in contact with us if you need them.
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

33. References
33/31

Thomas Ball, Yung-Min Kim, Adam Porter, Harvey Siy. If Your Version Control System Could Talk... Presented at
the Workshop on Process Modelling and Empirical Studies of Software Engineering, ICSE 97, May
1997, MA, Boston

Cataldo, M., & Nambiar, S. (2010). The impact of geographic distribution and the nature of technical coupling on
the quality of global software development projects. Quality. doi:10.1002/smr

Harald Gall, Karin Hajek, and Mehdi Jazayeri. 1998. Detection of Logical Coupling Based on Product Release
History. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM '98). IEEE Computer
Society, Washington, DC, USA, 190-198.

Harald Gall, Mehdi Jazayeri, and Jacek Krajewski. 2003. CVS Release History Data for Detecting Logical
Couplings. In Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution (IWPSE '03).
IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 13-.

Thomas Zimmermann, Peter Weisgerber, Stephan Diehl, and Andreas Zeller. 2004. Mining Version Histories to
Guide Software Changes. In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE
'04). IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 563-572.

Thomas Zimmermann, Peter Weissgerber, Stephan Diehl, and Andreas Zeller. 2005. Mining Version Histories to
Guide Software Changes. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 31, 6 (June 2005), 429-445. DOI=10.1109/TSE.2005.72
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2005.72
Some references may be missing, please enter in contact with us if you need them.
Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)

34. References
34/31
Marco D'Ambros and Michele Lanza. 2006. Reverse Engineering with Logical
Coupling. In Proceedings of the 13th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering
(WCRE '06). IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 189-198.
DOI=10.1109/WCRE.2006.51

W. P. Stevens, G. J. Myers, and L. L. Constantine. 1974. Structured design. IBM
Syst. J. 13, 2 (June 1974), 115-139. DOI=10.1147/sj.132.0115
http://dx.doi.org/10.1147/sj.132.0115

Marco D'Ambros, Michele Lanza, and Romain Robbes. 2009. On the Relationship
Between Change Coupling and Software Defects. In Proceedings of the 2009 16th
Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE '09). IEEE Computer Society,
Washington, DC, USA, 135-144. DOI=10.1109/WCRE.2009.19
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/WCRE.2009.19

Thomas Zimmermann, Stephan Diehl, and Andreas Zeller. 2003. How History
Justifies System Architecture (or Not). In Proceedings of the 6th International
Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution (IWPSE '03). IEEE Computer Society,
Some references may be missing, please enter in contact with us if you need them.
Washington, DC, USA, 73-.

Marco A. Gerosa (gerosa@ime.usp.br)