Case-Based Reasoning System for Software Architecture Evaluation and Insight (CBR-Insight)

The architectural complexity of a software code base has a significant impact on its reliability and maintainability. In general, as the complexity increases, so do the number of bugs, the amount of time required to fix each bug, and the amount of time required to adjust existing features or add new features to the software. We propose to build the Case-Based Reasoning System for Software Architecture Evaluation and Insight (CBR-Insight), to provide contracting officials with a tool they can use to measure and understand the ramifications of architectural complexity and technical debt. CBR-Insight combines the functionality of a leading COTS static analysis tool with case-based reasoning techniques from artificial intelligence. The result is a web-application capable of calculating the propagation cost, core size, and other key metrics and fully leveraging these results to provide insight into software product quality. In Phase I, we developed and tested a primary component of the Phase II system that calculates these metrics and creates an interactive report of the results. During Phase II, we will build on this prior work to develop the complete CBR-Insight system, towards the goal of creating software to assist the U.S. Air Force in improving software quality.