Abstract: To solve the problem of the lack of consideration of the characteristics of entities and features,a hierarchical clustering based software architecture recovery approach was proposed.Targeted entities and features were selected,weight scheme was proposed to generate feature vectors,information loss was considered as the similarity metric,and objective and subjective evaluation measures were respectively chosen and given.Compared with superior agglomerative software clustering approaches,HCSAR is more cohesive,requires less arbitrary decisions,is flexible to adjust the focus of software clustering,and is able to assist to generate more accurate system partition.

Key words: Hierarchical clustering,Architecture recovery,Object orientation,Procedure orientation,System partition