On the practitioners’ understanding of coupling smells — A grey literature based Grounded-Theory study

Code and design smells, such as the coupling smells examined in this article, are widely studied. Existing empirical studies reveal gaps between scientific theory practice, not yet explained by literature. Only basic smell detection approaches metrics seem to have been transferred practice so far. This article aims study current practitioner’s understanding of smells. Based on grey literature sources containing practitioner views we performed a Grounded Theory (GT) study. We used UML-based modeling precisely encode our findings rigorous analysis codes models. Our results defining factors well impacts, trade-offs, relationships other practices patterns, fix options perceived practitioners. further identified science derived opportunities challenges for future work. Five lessons presented research. can help scientists get better concerns, practitioners an overview perception