Modularity analysis of use case implementations

A component-based decomposition can result in implementations having use cases code tangled with other concerns and scattered across components. Modularity mechanisms such as aspects, mixins, and virtual classes have been proposed to address this kind of problem. One can use such mechanisms to group together code related to a single use case. This paper quantitatively analyzes the impact of this kind of use case modularization. We apply one specific technique, aspect oriented programming, to modularize the use case implementations of two information systems that conform to the layered architecture pattern. We extract traditional and contemporary metrics – including cohesion, coupling, and separation of concerns – to analyze modularity in terms of quality attributes such as changeability, support for independent development, and pluggability. Our findings indicate that the results of a given modularity analysis depend on other factors beyond the chosen system, metrics, and the applied modularity technique.

► We assess the effects of modularizing use case implementations using aspects.
► We derive our findings from two case studies.
► Evidence on the relative concept of modularization and its correlation with types of change suffered by a given system are the two main outcomes of this work.