Refactoring-Aware Code Review: A Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract

Modern Code Review (MCR) demands enhancements in the way change logs are presented to reviewers. Their task benefits from higher-level descriptions about the intention behind commits; for instance, evolution tasks, such as refactorings, could be more effectively reviewed in the presence of the intended transformation – better if automatically detected by MCR tool support. This paper presents a systematic literature mapping (combining results from search strings, snowballing and a two-phase classification scheme) on refactoring-aware solutions to support MCR. We could observe that, since 2015, interest in tools and techniques for automatic detection of refactorings has been steadily growing. Most publications refer to new development methods or carry out characterisation studies. As a consequence of this overview, we point out a few potential research topics for the next years. In special, detection of multiple refactoring types in a mixed change log (in which refactorings are combined with other kinds of changes), or the need for case studies or experiments in applying refactoring detection in MCR, on distinct application domains and development environments.