Chidamber and Kemerer´s metrics suite: a measurement theory perspective

Author

Hitz, Markus

Author_Institution

Inst. fur Angewandte Inf. und Informationssyst., Wien Univ.

Volume

22

Issue

4

fYear

1996

fDate

4/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

267

Lastpage

271

Abstract

The metrics suite for object-oriented design put forward by Chidamber and Kemerer (1994) is partly evaluated by applying principles of measurement theory. Using the object coupling measure (CBO) as an example, it is shown that failing to establish a sound empirical relation system can lead to deficiencies of software metrics. Similarly, for the object-oriented cohesion measure (LCOM) it is pointed out that the issue of empirically testing the representation condition must not be ignored, even if other validation principles are carefully obeyed. As a by-product, an alternative formulation for LCOM is proposed

Keywords

object-oriented methods; object-oriented programming; program testing; program verification; software metrics; empirical testing; measurement theory; metrics suite; object coupling measure; object-oriented cohesion measure; object-oriented design; partial evaluation; representation condition; software metrics; sound empirical relation system; validation principles; Guidelines; Network-on-a-chip; Ontologies; Predictive models; Process design; Programming profession; Software design; Software measurement; Software metrics; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/32.491650

Filename

491650