A Mapping Study of Software Causal Factors for Improving Maintenance

Context: Software maintenance is important to keep existing software systems functional for organizations or users that depend on that software. Goal: We aim to identify the factors, i.e., software characteristics such as code complexity, leading to maintenance problems. Method: We present a Mapping Study (MS) on controlled experiments that investigated software characteristics related to defects during maintenance. Results: The search strategy identified 78 papers, of which 9 have been included in our study, dated from 1985 to 2013, after applying our inclusion and exclusion criteria. We extracted data from these papers to identify the research methods, and the independent, dependent, blocked, and measured variables. Conclusions: Our MS results point to a weak evidence on software factors causing defects during maintenance. Stronger evidence can be developed via more controlled experiments that address multiple independent variables and hold the software objects constant.