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Property-Based Software Engineering MeasurementLittle theory exists in the field of software system measurement. Concepts such as complexity, coupling, cohesion or even size are very often subject to interpretation and appear to have inconsistent definitions in the literature. As a consequence, there is little guidance provided to the analyst attempting to define proper measures for specific problems. Many controversies in the literature are simply misunderstandings and stem from the fact that some people talk about different measurement concepts under the same label (complexity is the most common case). There is a need to define unambiguously the most important measurement concepts used in the measurement of software products. One way of doing so is to define precisely what mathematical properties characterize these concepts, regardless of the specific software artifacts to which these concepts are applied. Such a mathematical framework could generate a consensus in the software engineering community and provide a means for better communication among researchers, better guidelines for analysts, and better evaluation methods for commercial static analyzers for practitioners. In this paper, we propose a mathematical framework which is generic, because it is not specific to any particular software artifact and rigorous, because it is based on precise mathematical concepts. We use this framework to propose definitions of several important measurement concepts (size, length, complexity, cohesion, coupling). It does not intend to be complete or fully objective; other frameworks could have been proposed and different choices could have been made. However, we believe that the formalisms and properties we introduce are convenient and intuitive. This framework contributes constructively to a firmer theoretical ground of software measurement.
Document ID
19990025394
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Briand, Lionel C.
(CRIM Montreal, Quebec Canada)
Morasca, Sandro
(Politecnico di Milano Milan, Italy)
Basili, Victor R.
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 1997
Publication Information
Publication: Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Collected Software Engineering Papers
Volume: 15
Subject Category
Computer Programming And Software
Report/Patent Number
IEEE-LN-S95066
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF 01-5-24845
CONTRACT_GRANT: NsG-5123
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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