Developing a design complexity measure

The cost to develop and maintain software is increasing at a rapid rate. The majority of the total cost to develop software is spent in the post-deployment-maintenance phase of the software life-cycle. In order to reduce life-cycle costs, more effort needs to be spent in earlier phases of the software life-cycle. One characteristic that merits investigation is the complexity of a software design. Project performance metrics (i.e. effort, schedule, defect density, etc.) are driven by software complexity, and affect project costs. The Software Design Complexity Measure examines an organization´s historical project performance metrics along with the complexity of a project´s software design to estimate future project performance metrics. These estimates indicate costs that the evaluated software design will incur in the future. Equipped with future cost estimates, a project manager will be able to make more informed decisions concerning the future of the project