CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction

Concept drift (CD) refers to data distributions that may vary after a minimum stable period. CD negatively influences models’ performance of software defect prediction (SDP) trained on past datasets when applied to the new datasets. Based on previous studies of SDP, it is confirmed that the accuracy...

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Main Authors: Md Alamgir Kabir, Shahina Begum, Mobyen Uddin Ahmed, Atiq Ur Rehman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-11-01
Series:Symmetry
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/14/12/2508
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author Md Alamgir Kabir
Shahina Begum
Mobyen Uddin Ahmed
Atiq Ur Rehman
author_facet Md Alamgir Kabir
Shahina Begum
Mobyen Uddin Ahmed
Atiq Ur Rehman
author_sort Md Alamgir Kabir
collection DOAJ
description Concept drift (CD) refers to data distributions that may vary after a minimum stable period. CD negatively influences models’ performance of software defect prediction (SDP) trained on past datasets when applied to the new datasets. Based on previous studies of SDP, it is confirmed that the accuracy of prediction models is negatively affected due to changes in data distributions. Moreover, cross-version (CV) defect data are naturally asymmetric due to the nature of their class imbalance. In this paper, a moving window-based concept-drift detection (CODE) framework is proposed to detect CD in chronologically asymmetric defective datasets and to investigate the feasibility of alleviating CD from the data. The proposed CODE framework consists of four steps, in which the first pre-processes the defect datasets and forms CV chronological data, the second constructs the CV defect models, the third calculates the test statistics, and the fourth provides a hypothesis-test-based CD detection method. In prior studies of SDP, it is observed that in an effort to make the data more symmetric, class-rebalancing techniques are utilized, and this improves the prediction performance of the models. The ability of the CODE framework is demonstrated by conducting experiments on 36 versions of 10 software projects. Some of the key findings are: (1) Up to 50% of the chronological-defect datasets are drift-prone while applying the most popular classifiers used from the SDP literature. (2) The class-rebalancing techniques had a positive impact on the prediction performance for CVDP by correctly classifying the CV defective modules and detected CD by up to 31% on the resampled datasets.
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spelling doaj.art-dbf4240119d641749d1814f5fdcfd3e22023-11-24T18:18:58ZengMDPI AGSymmetry2073-89942022-11-011412250810.3390/sym14122508CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect PredictionMd Alamgir Kabir0Shahina Begum1Mobyen Uddin Ahmed2Atiq Ur Rehman3Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Research Group, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Högskoleplan 1, 722 20 Västerås, SwedenArtificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Research Group, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Högskoleplan 1, 722 20 Västerås, SwedenArtificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Research Group, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Högskoleplan 1, 722 20 Västerås, SwedenArtificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Research Group, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Högskoleplan 1, 722 20 Västerås, SwedenConcept drift (CD) refers to data distributions that may vary after a minimum stable period. CD negatively influences models’ performance of software defect prediction (SDP) trained on past datasets when applied to the new datasets. Based on previous studies of SDP, it is confirmed that the accuracy of prediction models is negatively affected due to changes in data distributions. Moreover, cross-version (CV) defect data are naturally asymmetric due to the nature of their class imbalance. In this paper, a moving window-based concept-drift detection (CODE) framework is proposed to detect CD in chronologically asymmetric defective datasets and to investigate the feasibility of alleviating CD from the data. The proposed CODE framework consists of four steps, in which the first pre-processes the defect datasets and forms CV chronological data, the second constructs the CV defect models, the third calculates the test statistics, and the fourth provides a hypothesis-test-based CD detection method. In prior studies of SDP, it is observed that in an effort to make the data more symmetric, class-rebalancing techniques are utilized, and this improves the prediction performance of the models. The ability of the CODE framework is demonstrated by conducting experiments on 36 versions of 10 software projects. Some of the key findings are: (1) Up to 50% of the chronological-defect datasets are drift-prone while applying the most popular classifiers used from the SDP literature. (2) The class-rebalancing techniques had a positive impact on the prediction performance for CVDP by correctly classifying the CV defective modules and detected CD by up to 31% on the resampled datasets.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/14/12/2508software defect predictioncross-version defect predictionchronological-defect dataclass rebalancingconcept drift
spellingShingle Md Alamgir Kabir
Shahina Begum
Mobyen Uddin Ahmed
Atiq Ur Rehman
CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction
Symmetry
software defect prediction
cross-version defect prediction
chronological-defect data
class rebalancing
concept drift
title CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction
title_full CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction
title_fullStr CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction
title_full_unstemmed CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction
title_short CODE: A Moving-Window-Based Framework for Detecting Concept Drift in Software Defect Prediction
title_sort code a moving window based framework for detecting concept drift in software defect prediction
topic software defect prediction
cross-version defect prediction
chronological-defect data
class rebalancing
concept drift
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/14/12/2508
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AT mobyenuddinahmed codeamovingwindowbasedframeworkfordetectingconceptdriftinsoftwaredefectprediction
AT atiqurrehman codeamovingwindowbasedframeworkfordetectingconceptdriftinsoftwaredefectprediction