Classifying metrics for assessing Object-Oriented Software Maintainability: A family of metrics’ catalogs

•OOSM metrics’ categorization was proposed: 7 categories and 17 subcategories.•The categories were used as engine of the generation of OOSM metrics catalogs.•A family of OOSM metrics catalogs was proposed.•Coverage indexes defined to assess our approach were greater than 90. Object-Oriented Programm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of systems and software 2015-05, Vol.103, p.85-101
Main Authors: Saraiva, Juliana de A.G., de França, Micael S., Soares, Sérgio C.B., Filho, Fernando J.C.L., de Souza, Renata M.C.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Categories
Computer programs
Decision making
Maintainability
Maintenance management
Metrics
Object oriented
Object oriented programming
Object-Oriented Software Development
Software
Software engineering
Software maintainability
Software quality
Studies
Tasks
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Summary:•OOSM metrics’ categorization was proposed: 7 categories and 17 subcategories.•The categories were used as engine of the generation of OOSM metrics catalogs.•A family of OOSM metrics catalogs was proposed.•Coverage indexes defined to assess our approach were greater than 90. Object-Oriented Programming is one of the most used paradigms. Complementarily, the software maintainability is considered a software attribute playing an important role in quality level. In this context, Object-Oriented Software Maintainability (OOSM) has been studied through years, and many researchers have proposed a large number of metrics to measure it. Consequently, the decision-making process about which metrics can be adopted in experiments on OOSM is a hard task. Therefore, a metrics’ categorization has been proposed to facilitate this process. As result, 7 categories and 17 subcategories were identified. These categories represent the scenarios of OOSM metrics adoption, and a family of OOSM metrics catalog was generated based on the selection of a metrics’ categorization. Additionally, a quasi-experiment was conducted to check the coverage index of the catalogs generated using our approach over the catalogs suggested by experts. 90% of coverage was obtained with 99% of confidential level using the Wilcoxon Test. Complementarily, a survey was conducted to check the experts’ opinion about the catalog generated by the portal when they were compared by the catalogs suggested by them. Therefore, this evaluation can be the first evidences of the usefulness of the family of the catalogs based on the metrics’ categorization.
ISSN:0164-1212
1873-1228
DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2015.01.014