Source Code Hotspots: A Diagnostic Method for Quality Issues

2026-02-13Software Engineering

Software Engineering
AI summary

The authors studied many software projects on GitHub to find tiny parts of code called "hotspots" that need frequent changes. They discovered 15 common reasons why these hotspots appear, with the top ones related to update practices, messy code layout, and inconsistent formatting rules. Most changes to these hotspots were actually made by automated bots, which often create unnecessary edits. The authors also provided practical advice and tools to help developers reduce these hotspots and improve software maintenance.

hotspotsource coderefactoringcontinuous integrationversion historyformattingautomationsoftware maintenanceconfigurability
Authors
Saleha Muzammil, Mughees Ur Rehman, Zoe Kotti, Diomidis Spinellis
Abstract
Software source code often harbours "hotspots": small portions of the code that change far more often than the rest of the project and thus concentrate maintenance activity. We mine the complete version histories of 91 evolving, actively developed GitHub repositories and identify 15 recurring line-level hotspot patterns that explain why these hotspots emerge. The three most prevalent patterns are Pinned Version Bump (26%), revealing brittle release practices; Long Line Change (17%), signalling deficient layout; and Formatting Ping-Pong (9%), indicating missing or inconsistent style automation. Surprisingly, automated accounts generate 74% of all hotspot edits, suggesting that bot activity is a dominant but largely avoidable source of noise in change histories. By mapping each pattern to concrete refactoring guidelines and continuous integration checks, our taxonomy equips practitioners with actionable steps to curb hotspots and systematically improve software quality in terms of configurability, stability, and changeability.