Software Change Size Measurement: an Exploratory Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract

Change in software projects can occur through various channels. Customers may request modifications or new features; appraisal activities such as reviews or testing may uncover issues that necessitate adjustments, or products may need to adapt to changes in their operating environment. Therefore, it is essential to assess these changes explicitly and objectively within the scope of software engineering activities. Specifically, quantifying change by measuring its size is crucial for successful management, as without a meaningful metric, it is impossible to accurately assess its impact on the project's effort, schedule, and cost. This study aims to explore the concept of change in software engineering literature, with a particular emphasis on the methods used to measure its size. The study reveals that the current literature on this topic is still in its early stages and the measurement and estimation of changes remain challenging throughout both development and maintenance phases. According to the reviewed articles, size is primarily used for effort estimation. Various software artifacts from different stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) serve as input for change measurement, highlighting the need for a versatile size measurement applicable across all SDLC phases. Most of the reviewed articles interpret change in the context of maintenance activities. This research sets a benchmark for the status of software size measures for software change and highlights related problems to suggest further research topics. © 2024 Copyright for this paper by its authors.