On automatically collectable metrics for software maintainability evaluation

Jan Peter Ostberg, Stefan Wagner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

In our work with industry partners as well as with students in seminars we noticed that many people often stick to 'aged' metrics when they want to evaluate the maintainability of software. They consider these metrics for this purpose without second thoughts, because the metrics are so present that almost every developer has at least heard the name and has some kind of knowledge about it. This smattering leads to an unreflected usage of theses metrics today without fully understanding them. To find suitable metrics for maintainability evaluation, we did a preliminary study, which indicated that still McCabe, Halstead and some kind of lines of code measurement dominate maintainability evaluation. We will discuss examples that question the ability of those metrics to reliably and automatically evaluate maintainability of software. Instead we will present metrics we consider more suitable to make solid statements about software maintainability. We conclude that our proposed metrics are better evaluators for maintainability because their impact on maintenance is clearer to interpret. Future work on metrics should carefully consider the use of 'aged' metrics.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2014 Joint Conference of the International Workshop on Software Measurement, IWSM 2014 and the International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, Mensura 2014
EditorsFrank Vogelezang, Maya Daneva
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages32-37
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781479941742
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Dec 2014
Externally publishedYes
EventJoint Conference of the 24th International Workshop on Software Measurement, IWSM 2014 and the 9th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, Mensura 2014 - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Duration: 6 Oct 20148 Oct 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2014 Joint Conference of the International Workshop on Software Measurement, IWSM 2014 and the International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, Mensura 2014

Conference

ConferenceJoint Conference of the 24th International Workshop on Software Measurement, IWSM 2014 and the 9th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, Mensura 2014
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityRotterdam
Period6/10/148/10/14

Keywords

  • Metrics
  • Software Maintenance
  • Software Quality Measurement

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