Do energy-oriented changes hinder maintainability?

Luis Cruz; Rui Abreu; John Grundy; Li Li; Xin Xia

doi:10.1109/ICSME.2019.00013

Do energy-oriented changes hinder maintainability?

Luis Cruz, Rui Abreu, John Grundy, Li Li, Xin Xia

Department of Software Systems & Cybersecurity

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Energy efficiency is a crucial quality requirement for mobile applications. However, improving energy efficiency is far from trivial as developers lack the knowledge and tools to aid in this activity. In this paper we study the impact of changes to improve energy efficiency on the maintainability of Android applications. Using a dataset containing 539 energy efficiency-oriented commits, we measure maintainability- A s computed by the Software Improvement Group's web-based source code analysis service Better Code Hub (BCH)-before and after energy efficiency-related code changes. Results show that in general improving energy efficiency comes with a significant decrease in maintainability. This is particularly evident in code changes to accommodate the Power Save Mode and Wakelock Addition energy patterns. In addition, we perform manual analysis to assess how real examples of energy-oriented changes affect maintainability. Our results help mobile app developers to 1) avoid common maintainability issues when improving the energy efficiency of their apps; and 2) adopt development processes to build maintainable and energy-efficient code. We also support researchers by identifying challenges in mobile app development that still need to be addressed.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019
Editors	Miryung Kim, Árpád Beszédes
Place of Publication	Piscataway NJ USA
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	29-40
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781728130941
ISBN (Print)	9781728130958
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSME.2019.00013
Publication status	Published - 2019
Event	IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2019 - Cleveland, United States of America Duration: 30 Sept 2019 → 4 Oct 2019 Conference number: 35th https://icsme2019.github.io/ https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8910135/proceeding (Proceedings)

Conference

Conference	IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2019
Abbreviated title	ICSME 2019
Country/Territory	United States of America
City	Cleveland
Period	30/09/19 → 4/10/19
Internet address	https://icsme2019.github.io/ https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8910135/proceeding (Proceedings)

Keywords

Energy Efficiency
Mobile Computing
Software Maintenance

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1109/ICSME.2019.00013

Cite this

@inproceedings{a2d0e2cba2b64888a6e146fea349c7c2,

title = "Do energy-oriented changes hinder maintainability?",

abstract = "Energy efficiency is a crucial quality requirement for mobile applications. However, improving energy efficiency is far from trivial as developers lack the knowledge and tools to aid in this activity. In this paper we study the impact of changes to improve energy efficiency on the maintainability of Android applications. Using a dataset containing 539 energy efficiency-oriented commits, we measure maintainability- A s computed by the Software Improvement Group's web-based source code analysis service Better Code Hub (BCH)-before and after energy efficiency-related code changes. Results show that in general improving energy efficiency comes with a significant decrease in maintainability. This is particularly evident in code changes to accommodate the Power Save Mode and Wakelock Addition energy patterns. In addition, we perform manual analysis to assess how real examples of energy-oriented changes affect maintainability. Our results help mobile app developers to 1) avoid common maintainability issues when improving the energy efficiency of their apps; and 2) adopt development processes to build maintainable and energy-efficient code. We also support researchers by identifying challenges in mobile app development that still need to be addressed.",

keywords = "Energy Efficiency, Mobile Computing, Software Maintenance",

author = "Luis Cruz and Rui Abreu and John Grundy and Li Li and Xin Xia",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1109/ICSME.2019.00013",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781728130958",

pages = "29--40",

editor = "Kim, {Miryung } and Besz{\'e}des, {{\'A}rp{\'a}d }",

booktitle = "Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019",

publisher = "IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",

address = "United States of America",

note = "IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2019, ICSME 2019 ; Conference date: 30-09-2019 Through 04-10-2019",

url = "https://icsme2019.github.io/, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8910135/proceeding",

}

Cruz, L, Abreu, R, Grundy, J, Li, L & Xia, X 2019, Do energy-oriented changes hinder maintainability? in M Kim & Á Beszédes (eds), Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019. IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 29-40, IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2019, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, 30/09/19. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSME.2019.00013

Do energy-oriented changes hinder maintainability? / Cruz, Luis; Abreu, Rui; Grundy, John et al.
Proceedings - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2019. ed. / Miryung Kim; Árpád Beszédes. Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2019. p. 29-40.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review