Final Thesis: Visualization of Code Component Architecture in Open Source Software Products

Abstract: Components are fundamental building blocks in software engineering. Modern day software products are often a complex composition of many components from entirely different vendors. Some are proprietary software, while others are open source components. The reuse of open source components has many many advantages but also brings up challenges, like license non-compliance, copyright issues or the potential risk of security weaknesses introduced through dependencies. These issues can be identified and managed by understanding the component architecture and the relationship between components. We call one representation of a software product architecture the product model, which is an enhanced version of what is known as the bill of materials. A useful visual representation of the product model doesn’t exist at this point. Therefore the focus of this thesis is the implementation of an interactive tool the visualization of the underlying component graph, intending to help software developers to get a better understanding of the code component architecture (product model) of their software products.

PDFs: Master Thesis, Work Description

Reference: Nils Häusler. Visualization of Code Component Architecture in Open Source Software Products. Master Thesis, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg: 2019.