Recommending software project dependency upgrades

A computing system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory device coupled to the processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage device coupled to the processor,herein the storage device contains program code executable by the processor via the memory device to implement a method for recommending whether to upgrade dependencies of a software project, the method comprising:
• mining, by the processor, historical software data artifacts associated with a plurality of software projects to extract a plurality of metrics and dependency version lineages from the historical software data artifacts;
• clustering, by the processor, the software projects based on the metrics and the dependency version lineages, resulting in a plurality of software project clusters;
• extracting, by the processor, target metrics and a target version lineage of a target software project, the target software project having a plurality of software dependencies;
• selecting, by the processor, at least one software project cluster from the plurality of software project clusters that best matches the target software project;
• analyzing, by the processor, the metrics for each of the software projects included in the at least one software project cluster to determine that a measurable change to the metrics occurred as a result of upgrading dependencies of the software projects;
• and
• recommending, by the processor, which software dependencies of the target software project should be upgraded based on the measurable change to the metrics of the software projects.

A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device storing a computer readable program code, the computer readable program code comprising an algorithm that when executed by a computer processor of a computing system implements a method for recommending whether to upgrade dependencies of a software project, the method comprising:

• mining, by the processor, historical software data artifacts associated with a plurality of software projects to extract a plurality of metrics and dependency version lineages from the historical software data artifacts;
• clustering, by the processor, the software projects based on the metrics and the dependency version lineages, resulting in a plurality of software project clusters;
• extracting, by the processor, target metrics and a target version lineage of a target software project, the target software project having a plurality of software dependencies;
• selecting, by the processor, at least one software project cluster from the plurality of software project clusters that best matches the target software project;
• analyzing, by the processor, the metrics for each of the software projects included in the at least one software project cluster to determine that a measurable change to the metrics occurred as a result of upgrading dependencies of the software projects;
• and
• recommending, by the processor, which software dependencies of the target software project should be upgraded based on the measurable change to the metrics of the software projects.