Software design pattern recognition using machine learning techniques

Design patterns helpful for software development are the reusable abstract documents which provide acceptable solutions for the recurring design problems. But in the process of reverse engineering, it is often desired to identify as well as recognize design pattern from source code, as it improves maintainability and documentation of the source code. In this study, the process of software design pattern recognition is presented which is based on machine learning techniques. Firstly, a training dataset is developed which is based on software metrics. Subsequently, machine learning algorithms such as Layer Recurrent Neural Network and Decision Tree are applied for patterns detection process. In order to evaluate the proposed study, an open source software i.e., JHotDraw 7.0.6 has been used for the recognition of design patterns.