Chapter 15

Product Metrics
Moonzoo Kim
CS Division of EECS Dept.
KAIST
moonzoo@cs.kaist.ac.kr
http://pswlab.kaist.ac.kr/courses/cs550-07

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 Overview of Ch15. Product Metrics
„ 15.1 Software Quality
„ 15.2 A Framework for Product Metrics
„ 15.3 Metrics for the Analysis Model
„ Function point metrics
„ 15.4 Metrics for the Design Model
„ Architectural design metrics
„ Metrics for OO design
„ Class-oriented metrics
„ Component-level design metrics
„ Operation oriented metrics
„ 15.5 Metrics for Source Code
„ 15.6 Metrics for Testing
„ 15.7 Metrics for Maintenance
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McCall’s Triangle of Quality (1970s)
Maintainability Portability
Flexibility Reusability
Testability Interoperability
PRODUCT REVISION PRODUCT TRANSITION

PRODUCT OPERATION
Correctness Usability Efficiency
Reliability Integrity
SW built to conform to these factors will exhibit high quality,
even if there are dramatic changes in technology.
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 Measures, Metrics and Indicators

„ A SW engineer collects measures and develops metrics

so that indicators will be obtained
„ A measure provides a quantitative indication of the extent,
amount, dimension, capacity, or size of some attribute of a
product or process
„ The IEEE glossary defines a metric as “a quantitative measure
of the degree to which a system, component, or process
possesses a given attribute.”
„ IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology
(IEEE Std 610.12-1990)
„ An indicator is a metric or combination of metrics that provide
insight into the software process, a software project, or the
product itself

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 Measurement Principles
„ The objectives of measurement should be
established before data collection begins
„ Each technical metric should be defined in an
unambiguous manner
„ Metrics should be derived based on a theory that is
valid for the domain of application
„ Metrics for design should draw upon basic design concepts
and principles and attempt to provide an indication of the
presence of a desirable attribute
„ Metrics should be tailored to best accommodate specific
products and processes

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 Measurement Process
„ Formulation.
The derivation of software measures and metrics appropriate for the
representation of the software that is being considered.
„ Collection
The mechanism used to accumulate data required to derive the formulated
metrics.
„ Analysis.
The computation of metrics and the application of mathematical tools.
„ Interpretation.
The evaluation of metrics results in an effort to gain insight into the quality of
the representation.
„ Feedback.
Recommendations derived from the interpretation of product metrics
transmitted to the software team.
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Goal-Oriented Software Measurement
„ The Goal/Question/Metric Paradigm
„ establish an explicit measurement goal
„ define a set of questions that must be answered to achieve the goal
„ identify well-formulated metrics that help to answer these questions.
„ Goal definition template
„ Analyze
{the name of activity or attribute to be measured}
„ for the purpose of
{the overall objective of the analysis}
„ with respect to
{the aspect of the activity or attribute that is considered}
„ from the viewpoint of
{the people who have an interest in the measurement}
„ in the context of
{the environment in which the measurement takes place}.
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 Ex> Goal definition for SafeHome
„ Analyze the Safehome SW architecture for the purpose of
evaluating architectural components with respect to the ability to
make Safehome more extensible from the viewpoint of the SW
engineers performing the work in the context of produce
enhancement over the next 3 years
„ Questions
„ Q1: Are architectural components characterized in a manner that
compartmentalizes function and related data?
„ Answer: 0 … 10
„ Q2: Is the complexity of each component within bounds that will
facilitate modification and extension?
„ Answer: 0 … 1

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 Metrics Attributes
„ simple and computable.
It should be relatively easy to learn how to derive the metric, and
its computation should not demand inordinate effort or time
„ empirically and intuitively persuasive.
The metric should satisfy the engineer’s intuitive notions about
the product attribute under consideration
„ consistent and objective.
The metric should always yield results that are unambiguous.
„ consistent in its use of units and dimensions.
The mathematical computation of the metric should use
measures that do not lead to bizarre combinations of unit.
„ an effective mechanism for quality feedback.
That is, the metric should provide a software engineer with
information that can lead to a higher quality end product
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 Collection and Analysis Principles

„ Whenever possible, data collection and analysis should

be automated
„ Valid statistical techniques should be applied to establish
relationship between internal product attributes and
external quality characteristics
„ Interpretative guidelines and recommendations should
be established for each metric

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 Function-Based Metrics
„ The function point metric (FP), first proposed by Albrecht [ALB79],
can be used effectively as a means for measuring the functionality
delivered by a system.
„ Function points are derived using an empirical relationship based on
countable (direct) measures of software's information domain and
assessments of software complexity
„ Information domain values are defined in the following manner:
„ number of external inputs (EIs)
„ number of external outputs (EOs)
„ number of external inquiries (EQs)
„ number of internal logical files (ILFs)
„ Number of external interface files (EIFs)

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 Function Points
Information Weighting factor
Domain Value Count simple average complex

External Inputs ( EIs) 3 3 4 6 =

External Outputs ( EOs) =

3 4 5 7

External Inquiries ( EQs) 3 3 4 6 =

Internal Logical Files ( ILFs) 3 7 10 15 =

3 5 7 10 =
External Interface Files ( EIFs)

Count total

FP = count total x (0.65 + 0.01 x ∑(Fi))

where Fi’s are value adjustment factors based on
responses to the 14 questions (473 pg of SEPA)
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 Usage of Function Points
„ Assume that
„ past data indicates that one FP translates into 60 lines of code
„ 12 FPs are produced for each person-month of effort
„ Past projects have found an average of 3 errors per FP during
analysis and design reviews
„ 4 errors per FP during unit and integration testing
„ Suppose that Safehome has 56 FPs
„ ∑(Fi) = 46
„ These data can help SW engineers assess the
completeness of their review and testing activities

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Architectural Design Metrics (black box)
„ Architectural design metrics
„ Structural complexity of a module m= (# of fan-out of module m)2
„ Data complexity = (# of input & output variables)/ (fan-out+1)
„ System complexity = structural complexity + data complexity)
„ Morphology metrics: a function of the number of modules
and the number of interfaces between modules
„ Size, depth, width, arc-to-node ratio

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 Metrics for OO Design-I
„ Whitmire [WHI97] describes nine distinct and measurable
characteristics of an OO design:
„ Size
„ Size is defined in terms of four views: population, volume, length, and
functionality
„ Complexity
„ How classes of an OO design are interrelated to one another
„ Coupling
„ The physical connections between elements of the OO design
„ Sufficiency
„ “the degree to which an abstraction possesses the features required of it, or the
degree to which a design component possesses features in its abstraction,
from the point of view of the current application.”
„ Completeness
„ An indirect implication about the degree to which the abstraction or design
component can be reused
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 Metrics for OO Design-II
„ Cohesion
„ The degree to which all operations working together to achieve a
single, well-defined purpose
„ Primitiveness
„ Applied to both operations and classes, the degree to which an
operation is atomic
„ Similarity
„ The degree to which two or more classes are similar in terms of
their structure, function, behavior, or purpose
„ Volatility
„ Measures the likelihood that a change will occur

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 Distinguishing Characteristics
Berard [BER95] argues that the following characteristics require
that special OO metrics be developed:
„ Localization
the way in which information is concentrated in a program
„ Encapsulation
the packaging of data and processing
„ Information hiding
the way in which information about operational details is hidden by a
secure interface
„ Inheritance
the manner in which the responsibilities of one class are propagated to
another
„ Abstraction
the mechanism that allows a design to focus on essential details
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 Class-Oriented Metrics
Proposed by Chidamber and Kemerer (CK metrics):
„ weighted methods per class
∑(mi) where mi is a normalized complexity for method i
„ depth of the inheritance tree
„ number of children
„ coupling between object classes
„ response for a class
„ lack of cohesion in methods

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 Applying CK Metrics (pg483-484)
„ The scene: „ Shakira: Wasn't too complicated. I
„ Vinod's cubicle. went back to my UML class and
„ The players: sequence diagrams, like you
„ Vinod, Jamie, Shakira, Ed suggested, and got rough counts
members of the SafeHome software for DIT, RFC, and LCOM. I couldn't
engineering team, who are continuing find the CRC model, so I didn't
work on component-level design and test
case design.
count CBO.
„ The conversation: „ Jamie (smiling): You couldn't find
the CRC model because I had it.
„ Vinod: Did you guys get a chance
to read the description of the CK „ Shakira: That's what I love about
metrics suite I sent you on this team, superb communication.
Wednesday and make those „ Vinod: I did my counts . . . did you
measurements? guys develop numbers for the CK
metrics?

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 should look for classes that have bad
„ (Jamie and Ed nod in the affirmative.)
numbers in at least two or more of the
„ Jamie: Since I had the CRC cards, I CK metrics. Kind of two strikes and
took a look at CBO, and it looked you're modified.
pretty uniform across most of the
„ Shakira (looking over Ed's list of
classes. There was one exception,
classes with high RFC): Look, see
which I noted.
this class? It's got a high LCOM m
„ Ed: There are a few classes where well as a high RFC. Two strikes?
RFC is pretty high, compared with the
„ Vinod: Yeah I think so . . . it'll be
averages . . . maybe we should take a
difficult to implement because of
look at simplifying them.
complexity and difficult to test for the
„ Jamie: Maybe yes, maybe no. I'm still same reason. Probably worth
concerned about time, and I don't designing two separate classes to
want to fix stuff that isn't really broken. achieve the same behavior.
„ Vinod: I agree with that. Maybe we „ Jamie: You think modifying it'll save
us time?
„ Vinod: Over the long haul, yes.
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 Class-Oriented Metrics
The MOOD Metrics Suite

„ Method inheritance factor

MIF = ∑ Mi(Ci)/ ∑Ma(Ci)
„ Coupling factor
CF = ∑ ∑ is_client(Ci,Cj)/ (Tc2-Tc)

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 Class-Oriented Metrics
Proposed by Lorenz and Kidd [LOR94]:

„ class size
„ number of operations overridden by a subclass
„ number of operations added by a subclass

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 Component-Level Design Metrics

„ Cohesion metrics
a function of data objects and the locus of their definition
„ Coupling metrics
a function of input and output parameters, global
variables, and modules called
„ Complexity metrics
hundreds have been proposed (e.g., cyclomatic
complexity)

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 Operation-Oriented Metrics
Proposed by Lorenz and Kidd [LOR94]:

„ average operation size

# of messages sent by the operation
„ operation complexity
„ average number of parameters per operation

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 Metrics for Testing
„ Testing effort can also be estimated using metrics derived
from Halstead measures
„ Binder [BIN94] suggests a broad array of design metrics
that have a direct influence on the “testability” of an OO
system.
„ Lack of cohesion in methods (LCOM).
„ Percent public and protected (PAP).
„ Public access to data members (PAD).
„ Number of root classes (NOR).
„ Fan-in (FIN).
„ Number of children (NOC) and depth of the inheritance tree (DIT).

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 Metrics for Maintenance
„ IEEE Std 982.1-1998 Software Maturity index (SMI)
„ SMI = [MT - (Fa + Fc + Fd)]/MT
„ Mt = # of modules in the current release
„ Fc = # of modules in the current release that have been changed
„ Fa = # of modules in the current release that have been added
„ Fd = # of modules from the preceding release that were deleted in
the current release

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