Identifying Clusters of Concepts in a Low Cohesive Class for Extract Class Refactoring Using Metrics Supplemented Agglomerative Clustering Technique

Object oriented software with low cohesive classes can increase maintenance cost. Low cohesive classes are likely to be introduced into the software during initial design due to deviation from design principles and during evolution due to software deterioration. Low cohesive class performs operations that should be done by two or more classes. The low cohesive classes need to be identified and refactored using extract class refactoring to improve the cohesion. In this regard, two aspects are involved; the first one is to identify the low cohesive classes and the second one is to identify the clusters of concepts in the low cohesive classes for extract class refactoring. In this paper, we propose metrics supplemented agglomerative clustering technique for covering the above two aspects. The proposed metrics are validated using Weyuker’s properties. The approach is applied successfully on two examples and on a case study.