Deck 30: Product Metrics

Question 1

Describe the five activities associated with the software measurement process.

Answer 1

Formulation - derivation of metrics and measures that are appropriate for the software representation being considered
Collection - mechanism used to gather the data used to derive the metrics
Analysis - metric computation and use of mathematical tools
Interpretation - evaluation of metrics results to gain insight into the quality of the software representation
Feedback - recommendations derived from the interpretation are transmitted to the software team

Question 2

Describe the role of class-oriented metrics in assessing the quality of an OO system.

Answer 2

The class is the fundamental unit of an OO system.The number of methods and their complexity are directly related to the effort required to test a class.The depth of the inheritance tree can be used to estimate the complexity of the class hierarchy.It is important to strive to have low coupling between classes and high cohesion within each class.If large class sizes are detected during OOA review,the classes should partitioned to improve the modularity of the system and make it easier to maintain.

Question 3

List three characteristics of a good software metric.

Answer 3

Simple and computable,empirically and intuitively persuasive,consistent use of units and dimensions,programming language independent,provides effective mechanism for quality feedback

Question 4

Component-level design metrics focus on what three internal characteristics of software components?

Question 5

Technical testing metrics fall into two major categories.What are they?