Measuring complexity in C++ application software

✍ Scribed by F. G. Wilkie; B. Hylands

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 499 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0644
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-024x(19980425)28:5<513::aid-spe165>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

This paper concerns the use of design/source-code complexity metrics in analysing C++ software. It describes the use of one suite of object-oriented metrics published by Chidamber and Kemerer 1 to evaluate a commercial C++ application. It provides an interpretation and critique of these metrics, including the use of two traditional metrics (Cyclomatic Complexity 2 and Software Science 3 ) in association with these object-oriented metrics. The evolution, over a two and a half year period, of one commercial grade C++ application comprising 114 classes with 25,000 lines of code is studied. The efforts consumed in bug fixes and enhancements are correlated with the complexity measures on a per class basis, and results are presented. These results are compared to those from other workers. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the practical strengths and weaknesses of the metrics suite in the light of experiences with its use.