Object model resurrection-an object oriented maintenance activity

This paper addresses the problem of reengineering object-oriented systems that have incurred increased maintenance cost due to long development time-span and project lifecycle. When an Incremental Approach is used to develop an object-oriented system, there is a risk that the class design and the overall object model will deteriorate in quality with each increment. A recent research work suggested a process activity (Class Deterioration Detection and Resurrection-CDDR process activity) and a technique for the detection and resurrection of deteriorated classes. That work focussed on one particular aspect of object-oriented software maintenance-Class Quality Deterioration due to lack of cohesion induced by high coupling. This paper addresses the problem of deteriorating object-oriented design due to code and class growth (increase in the number of classes) within a system. A Code/Class Growth Control process activity (CGC) is suggested to avoid and eliminate Repetitious Code and Classes within the evolving system. The CDDR and CGC process activities are used to build an evolving Maintenance process model for object-oriented systems. The presented maintenance process model is an effective way to periodically assess and resurrect the quality of an object-oriented design during incremental development