scholarly journals A Novel Rank Aggregation-Based Hybrid Multifilter Wrapper Feature Selection Method in Software Defect Prediction

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Abdullateef O. Balogun ◽  
Shuib Basri ◽  
Saipunidzam Mahamad ◽  
Luiz Fernando Capretz ◽  
Abdullahi Abubakar Imam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
Rank Aggregation ◽  
Feature Subset Selection ◽  
Selection Problem ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Feature Subset ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Local Optima ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Wrapper Feature Selection

The high dimensionality of software metric features has long been noted as a data quality problem that affects the performance of software defect prediction (SDP) models. This drawback makes it necessary to apply feature selection (FS) algorithm(s) in SDP processes. FS approaches can be categorized into three types, namely, filter FS (FFS), wrapper FS (WFS), and hybrid FS (HFS). HFS has been established as superior because it combines the strength of both FFS and WFS methods. However, selecting the most appropriate FFS (filter rank selection problem) for HFS is a challenge because the performance of FFS methods depends on the choice of datasets and classifiers. In addition, the local optima stagnation and high computational costs of WFS due to large search spaces are inherited by the HFS method. Therefore, as a solution, this study proposes a novel rank aggregation-based hybrid multifilter wrapper feature selection (RAHMFWFS) method for the selection of relevant and irredundant features from software defect datasets. The proposed RAHMFWFS is divided into two stepwise stages. The first stage involves a rank aggregation-based multifilter feature selection (RMFFS) method that addresses the filter rank selection problem by aggregating individual rank lists from multiple filter methods, using a novel rank aggregation method to generate a single, robust, and non-disjoint rank list. In the second stage, the aggregated ranked features are further preprocessed by an enhanced wrapper feature selection (EWFS) method based on a dynamic reranking strategy that is used to guide the feature subset selection process of the HFS method. This, in turn, reduces the number of evaluation cycles while amplifying or maintaining its prediction performance. The feasibility of the proposed RAHMFWFS was demonstrated on benchmarked software defect datasets with Naïve Bayes and Decision Tree classifiers, based on accuracy, the area under the curve (AUC), and F-measure values. The experimental results showed the effectiveness of RAHMFWFS in addressing filter rank selection and local optima stagnation problems in HFS, as well as the ability to select optimal features from SDP datasets while maintaining or enhancing the performance of SDP models. To conclude, the proposed RAHMFWFS achieved good performance by improving the prediction performances of SDP models across the selected datasets, compared to existing state-of-the-arts HFS methods.

scholarly journals Empirical Analysis of Rank Aggregation-Based Multi-Filter Feature Selection Methods in Software Defect Prediction

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Abdullateef O. Balogun ◽  
Shuib Basri ◽  
Saipunidzam Mahamad ◽  
Said Jadid Abdulkadir ◽  
Luiz Fernando Capretz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Rank Aggregation ◽  
Selection Problem ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Filter Methods ◽  
Rank List ◽  
Viable Solution

Selecting the most suitable filter method that will produce a subset of features with the best performance remains an open problem that is known as filter rank selection problem. A viable solution to this problem is to independently apply a mixture of filter methods and evaluate the results. This study proposes novel rank aggregation-based multi-filter feature selection (FS) methods to address high dimensionality and filter rank selection problem in software defect prediction (SDP). The proposed methods combine rank lists generated by individual filter methods using rank aggregation mechanisms into a single aggregated rank list. The proposed methods aim to resolve the filter selection problem by using multiple filter methods of diverse computational characteristics to produce a dis-joint and complete feature rank list superior to individual filter rank methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated with Decision Tree (DT) and Naïve Bayes (NB) models on defect datasets from NASA repository. From the experimental results, the proposed methods had a superior impact (positive) on prediction performances of NB and DT models than other experimented FS methods. This makes the combination of filter rank methods a viable solution to filter rank selection problem and enhancement of prediction models in SDP.

scholarly journals An Adaptive Rank Aggregation-Based Ensemble Multi-Filter Feature Selection Method in Software Defect Prediction

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 1274
Author(s):  
Abdullateef O. Balogun ◽  
Shuib Basri ◽  
Luiz Fernando Capretz ◽  
Saipunidzam Mahamad ◽  
Abdullahi A. Imam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
Feature Selection Method ◽  
Rank Aggregation ◽  
Selection Problem ◽  
High Dimensionality ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Filter Methods ◽  
Superior Effect

Feature selection is known to be an applicable solution to address the problem of high dimensionality in software defect prediction (SDP). However, choosing an appropriate filter feature selection (FFS) method that will generate and guarantee optimal features in SDP is an open research issue, known as the filter rank selection problem. As a solution, the combination of multiple filter methods can alleviate the filter rank selection problem. In this study, a novel adaptive rank aggregation-based ensemble multi-filter feature selection (AREMFFS) method is proposed to resolve high dimensionality and filter rank selection problems in SDP. Specifically, the proposed AREMFFS method is based on assessing and combining the strengths of individual FFS methods by aggregating multiple rank lists in the generation and subsequent selection of top-ranked features to be used in the SDP process. The efficacy of the proposed AREMFFS method is evaluated with decision tree (DT) and naïve Bayes (NB) models on defect datasets from different repositories with diverse defect granularities. Findings from the experimental results indicated the superiority of AREMFFS over other baseline FFS methods that were evaluated, existing rank aggregation based multi-filter FS methods, and variants of AREMFFS as developed in this study. That is, the proposed AREMFFS method not only had a superior effect on prediction performances of SDP models but also outperformed baseline FS methods and existing rank aggregation based multi-filter FS methods. Therefore, this study recommends the combination of multiple FFS methods to utilize the strength of respective FFS methods and take advantage of filter–filter relationships in selecting optimal features for SDP processes.

scholarly journals Performance Analysis of Feature Selection Methods in Software Defect Prediction: A Search Method Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (13) ◽  
pp. 2764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullateef Oluwagbemiga Balogun ◽  
Shuib Basri ◽  
Said Jadid Abdulkadir ◽  
Ahmad Sobri Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Software Metrics ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Search Method ◽  
Feature Subset Selection ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Feature Subset ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect

Software Defect Prediction (SDP) models are built using software metrics derived from software systems. The quality of SDP models depends largely on the quality of software metrics (dataset) used to build the SDP models. High dimensionality is one of the data quality problems that affect the performance of SDP models. Feature selection (FS) is a proven method for addressing the dimensionality problem. However, the choice of FS method for SDP is still a problem, as most of the empirical studies on FS methods for SDP produce contradictory and inconsistent quality outcomes. Those FS methods behave differently due to different underlining computational characteristics. This could be due to the choices of search methods used in FS because the impact of FS depends on the choice of search method. It is hence imperative to comparatively analyze the FS methods performance based on different search methods in SDP. In this paper, four filter feature ranking (FFR) and fourteen filter feature subset selection (FSS) methods were evaluated using four different classifiers over five software defect datasets obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) repository. The experimental analysis showed that the application of FS improves the predictive performance of classifiers and the performance of FS methods can vary across datasets and classifiers. In the FFR methods, Information Gain demonstrated the greatest improvements in the performance of the prediction models. In FSS methods, Consistency Feature Subset Selection based on Best First Search had the best influence on the prediction models. However, prediction models based on FFR proved to be more stable than those based on FSS methods. Hence, we conclude that FS methods improve the performance of SDP models, and that there is no single best FS method, as their performance varied according to datasets and the choice of the prediction model. However, we recommend the use of FFR methods as the prediction models based on FFR are more stable in terms of predictive performance.

scholarly journals Software Defect Prediction Based on Feature Subset Selection and Ensemble Classification

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-228
Author(s):  
Ahmad A Saifan ◽  
Lina Abu-wardih
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
Ensemble Methods ◽  
Feature Subset Selection ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Pearson’S Correlation ◽  
Ensemble Models ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Pearson's Correlation ◽  
Feature Selection Techniques

Two primary issues have emerged in the machine learning and data mining community: how to deal with imbalanced data and how to choose appropriate features. These are of particular concern in the software engineering domain, and more specifically the field of software defect prediction. This research highlights a procedure which includes a feature selection technique to single out relevant attributes, and an ensemble technique to handle the class-imbalance issue. In order to determine the advantages of feature selection and ensemble methods we look at two potential scenarios: (1) Ensemble models constructed from the original datasets, without feature selection; (2) Ensemble models constructed from the reduced datasets after feature selection has been applied. Four feature selection techniques are employed: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Pearson’s correlation, Greedy Stepwise Forward selection, and Information Gain (IG). The aim of this research is to assess the effectiveness of feature selection techniques using ensemble techniques. Five datasets, obtained from the PROMISE software depository, are analyzed; tentative results indicate that ensemble methods can improve the model's performance without the use of feature selection techniques. PCA feature selection and bagging based on K-NN perform better than both bagging based on SVM and boosting based on K-NN and SVM, and feature selection techniques including Pearson’s correlation, Greedy stepwise, and IG weaken the ensemble models’ performance.

scholarly journals A Novel Feature Selection Method Based on Maximum Likelihood Logistic Regression for Imbalanced Learning in Software Defect Prediction

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 721-730
Author(s):  
Kamal Bashir ◽  
Tianrui Li ◽  
Mahama Yahaya
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Feature Selection ◽  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Feature Subset ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Optimal Feature Subset ◽  
Optimal Feature

The most frequently used machine learning feature ranking approaches failed to present optimal feature subset for accurate prediction of defective software modules in out-of-sample data. Machine learning Feature Selection (FS) algorithms such as Chi-Square (CS), Information Gain (IG), Gain Ratio (GR), RelieF (RF) and Symmetric Uncertainty (SU) perform relatively poor at prediction, even after balancing class distribution in the training data. In this study, we propose a novel FS method based on the Maximum Likelihood Logistic Regression (MLLR). We apply this method on six software defect datasets in their sampled and unsampled forms to select useful features for classification in the context of Software Defect Prediction (SDP). The Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RaF) classifiers are applied on the FS subsets that are based on sampled and unsampled datasets. The performance of the models captured using Area Ander Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve (AUC) metrics are compared for all FS methods considered. The Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) F-test results validate the superiority of the proposed method over all the FS techniques, both in sampled and unsampled data. The results confirm that the MLLR can be useful in selecting optimal feature subset for more accurate prediction of defective modules in software development process

scholarly journals Boosted Relief Feature Subset Selection and Heterogeneous Cross Project Defect Prediction using Firefly Particle Swarm Optimization

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2605-2613
Keyword(s):  
Particle Swarm Optimization ◽  
Particle Swarm ◽  
Subset Selection ◽  
Feature Subset Selection ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Feature Subset ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Swarm Optimization ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Cross Project

The exponential growth in the field of information technology, need for quality-based software development is highly demanded. The important factor to be focused during the software development is software defect detection in earlier stages. Failure to detect hidden faults will affect the effectiveness and quality of the software usage and its maintenance. In traditional software defect prediction models, projects with same metrics are involved in prediction process. In recent years, active topic is dealing with Cross Project Defect Prediction (CPDP) to predict defects on software project from other software projects dataset. Still, traditional cross project defect prediction approaches also require common metrics among the dataset of two projects for constructing the defect prediction techniques. Suppose if cross project dataset with different metrics has to be used for defect prediction then these methods become infeasible. To overcome the issues in software defect prediction using Heterogeneous cross projects dataset, this paper introduced a Boosted Relief Feature Subset Selection (BRFSS) to handle the two different projects with Heterogeneous feature sets. BRFSS employs the mapping approach to embed the data from two different domains into a comparable feature space with a lower dimension. Based on the similarity measure the difference among the mapped domains of dataset are used for prediction process. This work used five different software groups with six different datasets to perform heterogeneous cross project defect prediction using firefly particle swarm optimization. To produce optimal defect prediction in the Heterogeneous environment, the knowledge of particle swarm optimization by inducing firefly algorithm. The simulation result is compared with other standard models, the outcome of the result proved the efficiency of the prediction process while using firefly enabled particle swarm optimization.

Rank Aggregation Based Multi-filter Feature Selection Method for Software Defect Prediction

2021 ◽  
pp. 371-383
Author(s):  
Abdullateef O. Balogun ◽  
Shuib Basri ◽  
Said Jadid Abdulkadir ◽  
Saipunidzam Mahamad ◽  
Malek A. Al-momamni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
Feature Selection Method ◽  
Selection Method ◽  
Rank Aggregation ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect

EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF MACHINE LEARNING BASED SOFTWARE DEFECT PREDICTION TECHNIQUES

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (02) ◽  
pp. 389-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
VENKATA UDAYA B. CHALLAGULLA ◽  
FAROKH B. BASTANI ◽  
I-LING YEN ◽  
RAYMOND A. PAUL
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Feature Subset Selection ◽  
Defect Prediction ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Feature Subset ◽  
Software Defect Prediction ◽  
Software Defect ◽  
Intelligent Software ◽  
Instance Based Learning ◽  
Prediction Techniques

Automated reliability assessment is essential for systems that entail dynamic adaptation based on runtime mission-specific requirements. One approach along this direction is to monitor and assess the system using machine learning-based software defect prediction techniques. Due to the dynamic nature of software data collected, Instance-based learning algorithms are proposed for the above purposes. To evaluate the accuracy of these methods, the paper presents an empirical analysis of four different real-time software defect data sets using different predictor models. The results show that a combination of 1R and Instance-based learning along with Consistency-based subset evaluation technique provides a relatively better consistency in achieving accurate predictions as compared with other models. No direct relationship is observed between the skewness present in the data sets and the prediction accuracy of these models. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) does not show a consistent advantage in improving the accuracy of the predictions. While random reduction of attributes gave poor accuracy results, simple Feature Subset Selection methods performed better than PCA for most prediction models. Based on these results, the paper presents a high-level design of an Intelligent Software Defect Analysis tool (ISDAT) for dynamic monitoring and defect assessment of software modules.

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