Architectural smells can negatively impact on different software qualities and can represent a relevant source of architectural debt. Several architectural smells have been defined by different researchers. Moreover, both academia and industry proposed several tools for software quality analysis, but it is not always clear to understand which tools provide also support for architectural smells detection and if the tools developed for this specific purpose are effectively available or not. In this paper we propose a catalogue of architectural smells for which, at least one tool able to detect the smell exists. We outline the main differences in the detection techniques exploited by the tools and we propose a classification of these architectural smells according to the violation of three design principles.

1. Architectural Smells Detected
by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal
Umberto Azadi
u.azadi@campus.unimib.it
Francesca Arcelli Fontana
arcelli@disco.unimib.it
Davide Taibi
davide.taibi@tut.fi

2. What is an
Architectural Smell?
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 1

3. What is an
Architectural Smell? Poor or
rushed design
choices
Architectural
Smells
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 1

4. Architectural
problems or
anomalies
What is an
Architectural Smell? Poor or
rushed design
choices
Architectural
Debt
increases
Architectural
Smells
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 1

5. Software
faults, failures
or quality
downfalls
Architectural
problems or
anomalies
What is an
Architectural Smell? Poor or
rushed design
choices
Architectural
Debt
increases
Architectural
Smells
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 1

6. Architectural
Erosion
Software
faults, failures
or quality
downfalls
Architectural
problems or
anomalies
What is an
Architectural Smell? Poor or
rushed design
choices
Architectural
Debt
increases
Architectural
Smells
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 1

7. Objectives of our work
Q1: Which Architectural Smells are detected by at least one tool?
Q1.1: Can we provide a catalogue of these Architectural Smells?
Q2: How an Architectural Smell is detected?
Which are the main differences in the detection rules adopted by different tools?
Q3: Which kind of classification/s of Architectural Smells can be proposed?
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8. Related Works
Number of smells Number of categories Main focus
Garcia et al. (2009) 4 No categorization Industrial usefulness
Le et al. (2015, 2016) 11 4 Architectural Recovery
Lippert and Roock (2006) 30 3 Exhaustiveness
Ganesh et al. (2014) 25 4
Design Principles-based
classification
Mo et al. (2015) 5 No categorization Change and Error proneness
Our work 12 3 Automatic detection
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9. Study design
1
Selection
ofthe
tools
2
Selection
ofthe
sm
ells
3
Classification
ofthe
Architecturalsm
ells
4
Com
parison
ofthe
detection
strategies
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 4

10. 1 Selection of the tools1
The list of smells detected;
A definition or a description of each smell
detected;
At least a high-level description or the
implementation of the detection strategy/rule
used for each smell.
Selection
Criteria
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11. Tools Selected
ARCADE
Hotspot Detector Massey Architecture Explorer
Arcan
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12. 1 Selection of the smells
2
All the smells
definitions for each tool
The definitions of the
Architectural Smells only
Catalogue of
Architectural Smells
Smell evaluation and filtering:
All the smells more closely related to the
concept of code smell have been filtered out
Architectural smells linkage:
All the Architectural Smells with an identical or
similar description have been joined together.
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13. AI
Reviewer
ARCADE Arcan Designite
Hotspot
Detector
Massey
Architecture
Explorer
Sonargraph STAN
Structure
101
Cyclic Dependency ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Cyclic Hierarchy ✔ ✔
Hub-like Dependency ✔ ✔
Architectural Violation
God Component ✔ ✔
Implicit Cross-module Dependency ✔
Unstable Dependency
Abstraction without Decoupling
Ambiguous Interface
Multipath Hierarchy
Scattered Functionality
Unutilized Abstraction
Q1: Which Architectural Smells are detected by at least one tool?
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14. 1
Classification of the Architectural smells
based on the Design principles violations3
Modularity
HierarchyAbstraction
Encapsulation
Classification
proposed by
Ganesh et al. (2014)
Modularity is the property of a system that has been
decomposed into a set of cohesive and loosely
coupled modules.
Hierarchy is a ranking or ordering of abstractions.
An abstraction denotes the essential characteristics of an object
that distinguish it from all other kinds of objects and thus provides
crisply defined conceptual boundaries, relative to the perspective of
the viewer.
Too closely
related to the
concept of
code smell
Healthy
Dependency
Structure
The dependency structure of a (sub-)system is
considered unhealthy when it promotes a chain of
changes in the system each time it is modified.
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15. Q3: Which kind of classification of
Architectural Smells can be proposed?
Multipath
Hierarchy
Cyclic
Hierarchy
Unutilized
Abstraction
Ambiguous
Interface
God
Component
Cyclic
Dependency
Hub-like
Dependency
Unstable
Dependency
Scattered
Functionality
Abstraction
without
Decoupling
Implicit
Cross-module
Dependency
Architectural
Violation
Modularity Hierarchy
Healthy Dependency Structure
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16. 1 Comparison of the
detection strategies
4
Modularity Healthy Dependency Structure Hierarchy
Hierarchy
Graphs
Software
Quality
Metrics
Dependency
Graph
Concern
Detection
Software
Changes
A
B C
D E
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 11
Q2: How an Architectural Smell is detected?

17. Q1.1:
Can we provide
a catalogue of these
Architectural Smells?
Name
Also Known As
Description
Variant/s
Violated principle/s
Tools
Detection Comparison
Description Template
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18. Conclusion
Q1: Which Architectural Smells are detected by at least one tool?
○ 12 Architectural Smells gathered by 9 detection tools;
Q2: How an Architectural Smell is detected?
○ 5 main approaches different based on the category;
Q3: Which kind of classification of Architectural Smells can be proposed?
○ 3 not exclusive categories related to the design principles violation;

19. Future development
Considering to extend
this catalog to
microservices smells
Extend the template in the
catalogue by considering also
possible refactoring
suggestions
Extend and refine the
catalogue by considering
other detector tools
Refine the classification
and evaluate other
kinds of classification
27/05/2019 Architectural Smells Detected by Tools: a Catalogue Proposal 13

20. Thank you for your
attention

21. References
Garcia et al (2009) Garcia J., Popescu D., Edwards G., Medvidovic N., Toward a Catalogue of Architectural Bad Smells. In: Mirandola R., Gorton I.,
Hofmeister C. (eds) Architectures for Adaptive Software Systems. QoSA 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5581, 2009. Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02351-4_10
Le et al (2015) D. M. Le, P. Behnamghader, J. Garcia, D. Link, A. Shahbazian and N. Medvidovic, "An Empirical Study of Architectural Change in
Open-Source Software Systems," 2015 IEEE/ACM 12th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, Florence, 2015, pp. 235-245. doi:
10.1109/MSR.2015.29
Le et al (2016) D. M. Le, C. Carrillo, R. Capilla and N. Medvidovic, "Relating Architectural Decay and Sustainability of Software Systems," 2016 13th
Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture (WICSA), Venice, 2016, pp. 178-181. doi: 10.1109/WICSA.2016.15
Lippert and Roock (2006) M. Lippert and S. Roock, “Refactoring in Large Software Projects: Performing Complex Restructurings Successfully”.
Wiley, May 2006.
Ganesh et al. (2014) Ganesh Samarthyam, G. Suryanarayana and Tushar Sharma, “Refactoring for Software Design Smells: Managing Technical
Debt”. Burlington, Massachusetts, USA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2014.
Mo et al. (2015) R. Mo, Y. Cai, R. Kazman and L. Xiao, "Hotspot Patterns: The Formal Definition and Automatic Detection of Architecture Smells,"
2015 12th Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture, Montreal, QC, 2015, pp. 51-60. doi: 10.1109/WICSA.2015.12