What motivate software engineers to refactor source code? evidences from professional developers

Abstract

Refactoring is an increasingly practiced method in industry software development. However, existing research mostly focus on the technical aspect of refactoring, we still know little about the human behavior domain on this issue. Software developer's motivation has been recognized as a key human factor for the software development and maintenance tasks, therefore, identifying what motivates software developer refactor their (or others) source code will bring both theoretical and practical implications. In this paper, we report our case studies in four software development organizations. Through interviews with 10 professional software developers, we identified the major factors that motivate their refactoring activities. An empirical model on refactoring motivation is also presented based on the data collected.