Towards a Systematic Refactoring Method to Support Deployability

This article presents a systematic refactoring methodology to support deployability, applicable to any type of application, with the goal of improving or incorporating the quality attribute of deployability. We focus on applications that did not consider this attribute during the early stages of design. The methodology consists of four stages: Evaluation, Analysis and Prioritization of activities, Refactoring, and Re-evaluation, which together allow for continuous improvement of the deployment process each time they are applied. To test this methodology, we worked with three different development teams where the initial stages were applied. Additionally, a prototype was built in which all four stages were implemented, successfully proving the methodology's effectiveness and achieving optimal results that improved the deployment process of the prototype.