Measuring Dependency Freshness in Software Systems.

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Title: Measuring Dependency Freshness in Software Systems.
Authors: Cox, Jöel1 joel@joelcox.nl, Bouwers, Eric2 e.bouwers@sig.eu, van Eekelen, Marko1,3 marko.vaneekelen@ou.nl, Visser, Joost1,2 j.visser@cs.ru.nl
Source: ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering. 2015, p109-118. 10p.
Subjects: Computer software research, System analysis software, Software measurement, Computer files, Computer systems
Abstract: Modern software systems often make use of thirdparty components to speed-up development and reduce maintenance costs. In return, developers need to update to new releases of these dependencies to avoid, for example, security and compatibility risks. In practice, prioritizing these updates is difficult because the use of outdated dependencies is often opaque. In this paper we aim to make this concept more transparent by introducing metrics to quantify the use of recent versions of dependencies, i.e. the system's "dependency freshness". We propose and investigate a system-level metric based on an industry benchmark. We validate the usefulness of the metric using interviews, analyze the variance of the metric through time, and investigate the relationship between outdated dependencies and security vulnerabilities. The results show that the measurements are considered useful, and that systems using outdated dependencies four times as likely to have [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering is the property of Association for Computing Machinery and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+software+research%22">Computer software research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22System+analysis+software%22">System analysis software</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Software+measurement%22">Software measurement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+files%22">Computer files</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+systems%22">Computer systems</searchLink>
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  Data: Modern software systems often make use of thirdparty components to speed-up development and reduce maintenance costs. In return, developers need to update to new releases of these dependencies to avoid, for example, security and compatibility risks. In practice, prioritizing these updates is difficult because the use of outdated dependencies is often opaque. In this paper we aim to make this concept more transparent by introducing metrics to quantify the use of recent versions of dependencies, i.e. the system's "dependency freshness". We propose and investigate a system-level metric based on an industry benchmark. We validate the usefulness of the metric using interviews, analyze the variance of the metric through time, and investigate the relationship between outdated dependencies and security vulnerabilities. The results show that the measurements are considered useful, and that systems using outdated dependencies four times as likely to have [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering is the property of Association for Computing Machinery and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
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        Value: 10.1109/ICSE.2015.140
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 10
        StartPage: 109
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      – SubjectFull: Computer software research
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      – SubjectFull: System analysis software
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      – SubjectFull: Software measurement
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      – SubjectFull: Computer files
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      – SubjectFull: Computer systems
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      – TitleFull: Measuring Dependency Freshness in Software Systems.
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            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Text: 2015
              Type: published
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