M. Balazinska, E. Merlo, M. Dagenais, B. Laguë, K. Kontogiannis
{"title":"Measuring clone based reengineering opportunities","authors":"M. Balazinska, E. Merlo, M. Dagenais, B. Laguë, K. Kontogiannis","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809750","url":null,"abstract":"Code duplication, plausibly caused by copying source code and slightly modifying it, is often observed in large systems. Clone detection and documentation have been investigated by several researchers in the past years. Recently, research focus has shifted towards the investigation of software and process restructuring actions based on clone detection. This paper presents an original definition of a clone classification scheme useful to assess and measure different system reengineering opportunities. The proposed classification considers each group of cloned methods in terms of the meaning of the differences existing between them. The algorithm used for automatic classification of clones is presented together with results obtained by classifying cloned methods and measuring reengineering opportunities in six freely available systems whose total size is about 500 KLOC of Java code.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126973692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measurement of change: stable and change-prone constructs in a commercial C++ system","authors":"M. Lindvall","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809724","url":null,"abstract":"Our previous studies of developers' ability to predict software change revealed a great potential for improvement of the change management process. What we consider most beneficial is characterizing and understanding software change by measuring it and identifying what kind of changes take place and how frequent they are. With such knowledge, it is possible to build change models that help developers make better predictions regarding future requirements. An analysis is presented of a commercial object-oriented system-the PMR (Performance Management traffic Recording) system of Ericsson Radio Systems-that was changed significantly due to the implementation of a set of new requirements. Measures are used in order to identify stable and change-prone constructs of the system. The results from the analysis are complemented with results from interviews with developers about what changes most frequently in a C++ system.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114166410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research synthesis in software engineering: a case for meta-analysis","authors":"W. Hayes","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809735","url":null,"abstract":"The use of meta-analytic techniques to summarize empirical software engineering research results is illustrated using a set of 5 published experiments from the literature. The intent of the analysis is to guide future work in this area through objective summarization of the literature to date. A focus on effect magnitude, in addition to statistical significance is championed, and the reader is provided with an illustration of simple methods for computing effect magnitudes.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"127 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133449670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using metrics to manage the end-game of a software project","authors":"T. Pearse, Tracy Freeman, P. Oman","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809742","url":null,"abstract":"In order to effectively manage the market transition from one HP LaserJet product to the next it is critical for the embedded software (firmware) to be completed and tested in time to make the manufacturing start date. A slip in firmware release causes manufacturing complications and creates a shortfall in the availability of LaserJets which translates into millions of dollars in lost sales. But quality is just as important as meeting the firmware release date. Software metrics are an integral part of our quality requirements; they are used to guide software development and functional enhancements of the firmware code. In this paper we discuss how we have used software metrics to help manage the final period of time of LaserJet firmware development and testing before a product is released. We outline our motivation for establishing this metrics program, describe how we selected metrics to determine the status of the projects being monitored, and demonstrate how we used these metrics to manage the end-game of LaserJet firmware release.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115204043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Framework based software development: investigating the learning effect","authors":"M. Morisio, Daniele Romano, C. Moiso","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809747","url":null,"abstract":"We present a case study in framework based software development, with specific analysis of the effect of learning on productivity and defect density. The framework supports the development of multimedia, web-based services on a digital network. It uses a CORBA infrastructure, is developed in Java, and integrates COTS (Component-Off-The-Shelf). The case study considers the development of the framework and the development of a number of applications reusing the framework. Some of the applications are also developed without the framework. The study uses a nested factors experimental design, and measures effort, application size, defects, productivity, reuse level. The main result of the study is the correlation found between framework learning and productivity increase; and between framework learning and defect density decrease. We also underline an impressive difference in productivity between traditional development, development of the framework and development with the framework.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125802792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An empirical study on object-oriented metrics","authors":"M. Tang, Ming-Hung Kao, Mei-Hwa Chen","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809745","url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this study is the investigation of the correlation between object-oriented design metrics and the likelihood of the occurrence of object oriented faults. Such a relationship, if identified, can be utilized to select effective testing techniques that take the characteristics of the program under test into account. Our empirical study was conducted on three industrial real-time systems that contain a number of natural faults reported for the past three years. The faults found in these three systems are classified into three types: object-oriented faults, object management faults and traditional faults. The object-oriented design metrics suite proposed by Chidamber and Kemerer (1994) is validated using these faults. Moreover, we propose a set of new metrics that can serve as an indicator of how strongly object-oriented a program is, so that the decision to adopt object oriented testing techniques can be made, to achieve more reliable testing and yet minimize redundant testing efforts.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134462954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An empirical study of the correlations between function point elements [software metrics]","authors":"C. Lokan","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809741","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers and practitioners have noted correlations between the five types of elements in function point analysis. Practitioners exploit them; researchers have raised concerns about them. Two previous studies of the correlations between the elements have agreed in some findings, but differed on others. A large data set is analyzed here to gain further insight into the correlations. Two elements (inputs and logical files) are found to be correlated always, and one element (external files) is found to be generally uncorrelated with the others. Correlations are strongest in new development projects that use 4GLs. These results confirm some findings of previous researchers, and suggest explanations for differences between previous findings.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114137277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Empirical Software Engineering Research Ethics","authors":"J. Singer, Norman G. Vinson","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809754","url":null,"abstract":"Software engineering - unlike other empirical fields such as psychology, medicine, anthropology - has yet to address ethical principles and their application to data collection and analysis. This pane1 will explore ethical issues, in particular, with regards to metrics and their use.Ethical issues are important to researchers for several reasons. First, within the U.S. and Canada, researchers receiving federal grants for their research are required to follow ethical principles regarding informed consent, confidentiality, and minimization of harm. Research grants can be canceled for non-compliance to ethical standards. In rare cases, funding to an entire department can be at risk, as was recently the case for Duke University's Medical School.Another important issue to researchers has to do with ethical codes and their creation. In Canada, a joint council has recently created a new ethical code to be used in assessing research from several major granting councils (including those that would be responsible for software engineering research). Because this code was not created with software engineering research in mind, it might not conform to how software engineers view ethics. Yet it will still be applied to software engineering proposals. Therefore, as researchers, it is important to be proactive in both defining ethics as regards metrics and ensuring compliance to those standards. Without this proactive voice, ethical standards that do not make sense might be imposed upon the community. With software engineering research's close ties to industry and its products, it is not clear how traditional standards should be applied or modified to fit current practices.Industrial leaders should be concerned about ethics as well. Ethical reasoning supplies the basis for law. Therefore, industrial representatives need to ensure that the research that occurs in their environments follows ethical codes in order to protect themselves from litigation. Knowledge of ethics or ethical codes also informs industrial representatives about their rights with respect to the research content, such as how the data will be used, how it will be stored, and who will have access to it. Awareness of these rights is critical in today's competitive environment, especially with regard to university policies. For instance, in the U.S., OMB Circular A-110 - currently under review, requires all data collected with federal research monies to be made publicly available. Industries that have a stake in university research would be well advised to understand and address policies such as this.In the end, though, good ethics makes for good research. It therefore behooves us, as researchers and users of research, to understand issues regarding an ethical approach to metrics research. This panel will address informed consent, data sharing, confidentiality, analysis, access, and other important ethical issues.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115467935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measurements should generate value, rather than data [software metrics]","authors":"F. Niessink, H. Vliet","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809723","url":null,"abstract":"Success factors for software measurement programmes, as identified in the literature, typically focus on the \"internals\" of the measurement programme: incremental implementation, support from management, a well-planned metrics framework, and so on. However, for a measurement programme to be successful within its larger organizational context, it has to generate value for the organization. This implies that attention should also be given to the proper mapping of some identifiable organizational problem on to the measurement programme, as well as the translation of measurement results back to organizational actions. In this paper, we present a generic process model for measurement-based improvement, which does cover the latter issues as well. We describe a number of common uses for measurement programmes in software organizations, from which we derive additional \"external\" success factors. In addition, we propose a number of activities that organizations can use to implement value-generating measurement programmes.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126207949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An empirical study of effort estimation during project execution","authors":"M. C. Ohlsson, C. Wohlin","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1999.809730","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1999.809730","url":null,"abstract":"Presents an empirical study of effort estimation in software engineering projects. In particular, this study is focused on improvements in effort estimations as more information becomes available. For example, after the requirements phase, the requirements specification is available, and the question is whether the knowledge regarding the number of requirements helps in improving the effort estimation of the project. The objective is twofold. First, it is important to find suitable measures that can be used in the re-planning of the projects. Second, the objective is to study how the effort estimations evolve as a software project is performed. The analysis is based on data from 26 projects. The analysis consists of two main steps: model building based on data from part of the projects, and evaluation of the models for the other projects. No single measure was found to be a particular good measure for an effort prediction model; instead, several measures from different phases were used. The prediction models were then evaluated, and it is concluded that it is difficult to improve effort estimations during project execution, at least if the initial estimate is fairly good. It is, however, believed that the prediction models are important for knowing that the initial estimate is of the right order, i.e. the estimates are needed to ensure that the initial estimate was fairly good. It is concluded that the re-estimation approach will help project managers to stay in control of their projects.","PeriodicalId":372331,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403)","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130007614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}