Refactoring rules effect of class cohesion on high-level design

Various refactoring rules and their impact on class cohesion at high-level designs have been investigated. Early measurement and improvement of internal quality attributes such as cohesion, allows developers to avoid extensive review, frequent modification and rewriting of specifications, designs, and source codes. The impact of refactoring is obtained by comparing class cohesion of a design before and after refactoring applied. A set of class cohesion metrics that suits four properties of a good class cohesion metric was chosen based on theoretical analysis and supported by empirical evidence. We found that refactoring rules does not always improve class cohesion values.