Editing Code refactoring (section)

==Challenges==
Refactoring requires extracting software system structure, data models, and intra-application dependencies to get back knowledge of an existing software system.<ref>
{{Cite conference
|last1=Haendler|first1=Thorsten
|last2=Neumann|first2=Gustaf
|book-title=Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management
|title=A Framework for the Assessment and Training of Software Refactoring Competences
|s2cid=204754665
|date=2019
|pages=307–316
|doi=10.5220/0008350803070316
|isbn=978-989-758-382-7
|doi-access=free
}}</ref>
The turnover of teams implies missing or inaccurate knowledge of the current state of a system and about design decisions made by departing developers. Further code refactoring activities may require additional effort to regain this knowledge.<ref>
{{Cite conference
|last1=Nassif|first1=Matthieu
|last2=Robillard|first2=Martin P.
|conference=2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME)
|title=Revisiting Turnover-Induced Knowledge Loss in Software Projects
|s2cid=13147063
|date=November 2017
|pages=261–272
|doi=10.1109/ICSME.2017.64
|isbn=978-1-5386-0992-7
}}</ref>
Refactoring activities generate architectural modifications that deteriorate the structural architecture of a software system. Such deterioration affects architectural properties such as maintainability and comprehensibility which can lead to a complete re-development of software systems.
<ref>
{{Cite journal
|last1=van Gurp|first1=Jilles
|last2=Bosch|first2=Jan
|date=March 2002
|title= Design erosion: problems and causes
|journal=Journal of Systems and Software
|volume=61
|issue=2
|pages=105–119
|doi=10.1016/S0164-1212(01)00152-2
}}</ref>

Code refactoring activities are secured with [[software intelligence]] when using tools and techniques providing data about algorithms and  sequences of code execution.<ref>
{{Cite conference
|last1=Hassan|first1=Ahmed E.
|last2=Xie|first2=Tao
|date=November 2010
|title=Software intelligence: the future of mining software engineering data
|book-title=Proceedings of the FSE/SDP Workshop on Future of Software Engineering Research (FoSER '10)
|pages=161–166
|doi=10.1145/1882362.1882397
|s2cid=3485526
}}</ref> Providing a comprehensible format for the inner-state of software system structure, data models, and intra-components dependencies is a critical element to form a high-level understanding and then refined views of what needs to be modified, and how.<ref>
{{Cite journal
|last1=Novais|first1=Renato
|last2=Santos|first2=José Amancio
|last3=Mendonça|first3=Manoel
|date=2017
|title=Experimentally assessing the combination of multiple visualization strategies for software evolution analysis
|journal=Journal of Systems and Software
|volume=128
|pages= 56–71
|doi=10.1016/j.jss.2017.03.006
}}</ref>