Towards physical laws for software architecture

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility of establishing quantitative, law-like principles for software architecture by applying information classification methods to analyze open source programs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to derive statistical laws for software architecture using information classification techniques.

Findings

Identifies potential statistical patterns in open source software organization.

Proposes a framework for quantifying architectural principles.

Lays groundwork for formalizing software design guidelines.

Abstract

Starting from the pioneering works on software architecture precious guidelines have emerged to indicate how computer programs should be organized. For example the "separation of concerns" suggests to split a program into modules that overlap in functionality as little as possible. However these recommendations are mainly conceptual and are thus hard to express in a quantitative form. Hence software architecture relies on the individual experience and skill of the designers rather than on quantitative laws. In this article I apply the methods developed for the classification of information on the World-Wide-Web to study the organization of Open Source programs in an attempt to establish the statistical laws governing software architecture.