A Preliminary Investigation Towards the Impact of Composition Properties on Code Anomalies

Software systems evolve through the composition of their modules. However, the complexity associated with the composition properties emerges as an extremely favorable factor for unwanted code changes. In a parallel context, several studies indicate that the occurrence of code anomalies also generates unwanted changes in the source code. Code anomaly is associated with undesirable symptoms that affect negatively the program structure. Apparently, composition properties and code anomalies share similar characteristics. However, there are no studies that analyze if and how composition properties are related to code anomalies occurrence. This paper presents a preliminary investigation about the impact of composition properties on code anomalies. Our investigation was developed across 6 versions of an evolving software system. Our preliminary findings indicate that variations on composition properties reflect directly on code anomalies occurrence.