Software clustering methods group entities of a software system, such as classes or source files, into subsystems, and compute views that will uncover buried facts about the software system.

Such methods have been successfully applied to solve many reverse engineering problems. The amount of software clustering related research published in the literature these days demonstrates the importance that the research community places on the development of effective software clustering techniques.

Research on software clustering has taken three directions:

1. Development of better software clustering algorithms or the improvement of existing ones
2. Evaluation of existing software clustering methods
3. Investigation of further application for clustering methodologies in a software context