Coping With Software Change Using Information Transparency

Designers are often unsuccessful in designing for change using traditional modularity techniques. A complementary modularity technique called information transparency can improve a designer’s ability to simplify changes by exposing the interdependence of dispersed program elements that must be changed together for correctness. Information transparency represents modules via similarity and architecture, rather than locality and abstraction. With these, a programmer can create locality with a software tool, easing change in much the same way as traditional modularity. When combined with information hiding, then, more complex module structures can be represented. Information transparency techniques include naming conventions, formatting style, and ordering of code in a file. Transparency can be increased by better matching tool capabilities and programming style. We discuss applications of information transparency and introduce design principles for software designers and tool designers.