How to Analyze and Visualize a Large, Interconnected Software System: A Study of Fedora 20 with Lessons for All by Dan Sturtevant, PhD., and Dave Allan
Presented on January 26th, 2015 – YouTube video of presentation available here, presentation slides here
When working inside a system of enormous scale, people often understand only the part with which they are involved. As long as the whole system is sufficiently modular, people tend to believe they can construct reasonably reliable mental models of their component and how it interfaces with others. However, this is not always safe; research shows that hidden structures can interconnect components of a complex system at higher levels, causing organizational problems that are difficult to see, understand, and address.
Fedora 20 is composed of more than 2,500 interconnected software packages developed and managed by globally distributed teams. Estimates have placed the number of software developers who have contributed at over 100,000. In this webinar, Daniel Sturtevant and David Allan will present research that addresses the architectural complexity of the Fedora Linux operating system and software collection. They discuss:
1) How to visualize the system at multiple levels (including the view from 60,000 feet) and gain meaningful insights about its hidden structure,
2) How to benchmark across the system to better understand its composition and variations in complexity and quality, and
3) How this approach might be applied to other software systems.
Contact the Authors:
- Dan Sturtevant, CEO of Silverthread Inc. and Researcher at Harvard Business School
- Dave Allan, Director of Software Engineering Silverthread Inc.
technical-debt.net 