An Approach for Architectural Layer Recovery

In this paper we present an approach to identify software layers for the understanding and evolution of object oriented software systems. The approach first identifies relations between the classes and then uses the Kleinberg algorithm to group them into layers. Additionally to assess the approach and the underlying techniques, the paper also presents a prototype of a supporting tool to identify layers within Java software systems. To assess the feasibility of both the approach and the system prototype, the results from a case study conducted on an open source Java software system are presented and discussed