An Empirical Study on the Relationship Between the Co-Occurrence of Design Smell and Refactoring Activities

Due to the continuous evolution of software systems, their architecture is subject to damage and the formation of numerous design issues. This empirical study focuses on the co-occurrence of design smells in software systems and refactoring activities. To this end, a detailed analysis is carried out of the data relating to the presence of Design Smells, the use of refactoring, and the consequences of such use. Specifically, the evolution of 17 different types of design odors in five open-source Java software projects has been examined. Overall, the results indicate that the application of refactoring is not used by developers on design smells. This work also offers new and interesting insights for future research methods in this field.