A taxonomy of how method stereotypes change

Abstract

The role of a well-designed method should not change frequently or significantly over its lifetime. As such, changes to the role of a method can be an indicator of design improvement or degradation. To measure this, we use method stereotypes. Method stereotypes provide a high-level description of a method's behavior and role; giving insight into how a method interacts with its environment and carries out tasks. When a method's stereotype changes, so has its role. This work presents a taxonomy of how method stereotypes change and why the categories of changes are significant.