<s>
Software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
or	O
software	O
visualisation	O
refers	O
to	O
the	O
visualization	O
of	O
information	O
of	O
and	O
related	O
to	O
software	O
systems	O
—	O
either	O
the	O
architecture	B-Architecture
of	O
its	O
source	O
code	O
or	O
metrics	O
of	O
their	O
runtime	B-Library
behavior	I-Library
—	O
and	O
their	O
development	O
process	O
by	O
means	O
of	O
static	O
,	O
interactive	O
or	O
animated	O
2-D	O
or	O
3-D	O
visual	O
representations	O
of	O
their	O
structure	O
,	O
execution	O
,	O
behavior	O
,	O
and	O
evolution	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
uses	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
information	O
available	O
about	O
software	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
software	B-Application
repository	I-Application
data	O
that	O
tracks	O
changes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
objectives	O
of	O
software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
are	O
to	O
support	O
the	O
understanding	B-General_Concept
of	I-General_Concept
software	I-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
(	O
i.e.	O
,	O
its	O
structure	O
)	O
and	O
algorithms	O
(	O
e.g.	O
,	O
by	O
animating	O
the	O
behavior	O
of	O
sorting	O
algorithms	O
)	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
analysis	O
and	O
exploration	O
of	O
software	O
systems	O
and	O
their	O
anomalies	O
(	O
e.g.	O
,	O
by	O
showing	O
classes	O
with	O
high	O
coupling	B-Application
)	O
and	O
their	O
development	O
and	O
evolution	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
One	O
of	O
the	O
strengths	O
of	O
software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
is	O
to	O
combine	O
and	O
relate	O
information	O
of	O
software	O
systems	O
that	O
are	O
not	O
inherently	O
linked	O
,	O
for	O
example	O
by	O
projecting	O
code	O
changes	O
onto	O
software	O
execution	O
traces	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
can	O
be	O
used	O
as	O
tool	O
and	O
technique	O
to	O
explore	O
and	O
analyze	O
software	O
system	O
information	O
,	O
e.g.	O
,	O
to	O
discover	O
anomalies	O
similar	O
to	O
the	O
process	O
of	O
visual	B-Application
data	I-Application
mining	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
is	O
used	O
to	O
monitoring	O
activities	O
such	O
as	O
for	O
code	O
quality	O
or	O
team	O
activity	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
participates	O
to	O
Software	B-General_Concept
Intelligence	I-General_Concept
in	O
allowing	O
to	O
discover	O
and	O
take	O
advantage	O
of	O
mastering	O
inner	O
components	O
of	O
software	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tools	O
for	O
software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
might	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
visualize	O
source	O
code	O
and	O
quality	O
defects	O
during	O
software	O
development	O
and	O
maintenance	O
activities	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
different	O
approaches	O
to	O
map	O
source	O
code	O
to	O
a	O
visual	O
representation	O
such	O
as	O
by	O
software	B-Application
maps	I-Application
Their	O
objective	O
includes	O
,	O
for	O
example	O
,	O
the	O
automatic	O
discovery	O
and	O
visualization	O
of	O
quality	O
defects	O
in	O
object-oriented	O
software	O
systems	O
and	O
services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
More	O
or	O
less	O
specialized	O
graph	O
drawing	O
software	O
is	O
used	O
for	O
software	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
small-scale	O
2003	O
survey	O
of	O
researchers	O
active	O
in	O
the	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
and	O
software	O
maintenance	O
fields	O
found	O
that	O
a	O
wide	O
variety	O
of	O
visualization	O
tools	O
were	O
used	O
,	O
including	O
general	O
purpose	O
graph	O
drawing	O
packages	O
like	O
GraphViz	B-Language
and	O
GraphEd	O
,	O
UML	O
tools	O
like	O
Rational	B-Application
Rose	I-Application
and	O
Borland	B-Application
Together	I-Application
,	O
and	O
more	O
specialized	O
tools	O
like	O
Visualization	O
of	O
Compiler	O
Graphs	O
(	O
VCG	O
)	O
and	O
Rigi	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
range	O
of	O
UML	O
tools	O
that	O
can	O
act	O
as	O
a	O
visualizer	O
by	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
source	O
is	O
by	O
no	O
means	O
short	O
;	O
a	O
2007	O
book	O
noted	O
that	O
besides	O
the	O
two	O
aforementioned	O
tools	O
,	O
ESS-Model	O
,	O
BlueJ	B-Language
,	O
and	O
Fujaba	O
also	O
have	O
this	O
capability	O
,	O
and	O
that	O
Fujaba	O
can	O
also	O
identify	O
design	O
patterns	O
.	O
</s>
