System architecture metrics for controlling software maintainability

Describes a class of system architecture metrics, based upon the notion of information flows. These metrics are a development of the pioneering work of Sallie Henry and Denis Kefura (1981), and are applicable to the problem of controlling software maintainability. Results from an industrial validation of the relationship between some metrics and actual maintainability are presented. It is concluded that this approach has considerable potential, although there remains much scope for refinement