{"title":"Investigating metrics for architectural assessment","authors":"Alberto Avritzer, E. Weyuker","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731220","url":null,"abstract":"An empirical study is described using data collected during 50 architecture audits of large industrial telecommunications systems performed over a period of two years. The goal of this study was to develop metrics that could be used to differentiate between projects that are at high risk of failure and those at low risk. These metrics would be computed following an architecture audit before coding has begun, allowing measures to be taken to correct identified problems very early in the development lifecycle. Detailed information is presented about the use of the proposed risk prediction metric for seven of the systems for which we provided architecture audits.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132476438","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}
Gerald Atkinson, J. Hagemeister, P. Oman, Ambika Baburaj
{"title":"Directing software development projects with product metrics","authors":"Gerald Atkinson, J. Hagemeister, P. Oman, Ambika Baburaj","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731246","url":null,"abstract":"Software development managers are responsible for the timely completion of projects. They try to effectively focus team effort on the appropriate activities to complete projects on schedule and with high quality. In order to judge the status of projects so that teams can react accordingly, managers need project measurements which consist of both product and process metrics. We show the effective application of a small set of metrics, identified in a series of empirical studies, to assist managers in tracking and controlling software projects. In our studies, development team effort is directed by the metric curves which are driven to conform to \"signatures of confidence\" derived from successful projects with similar characteristics. Projects have been successfully managed by using this technique and ongoing studies in industry are showing positive results.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131901870","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":"Definition and experimental evaluation of function points for object-oriented systems","authors":"G. Caldiera, G. Antoniol, R. Fiutem, C. Lokan","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731242","url":null,"abstract":"We present a method for estimating the size, and consequently effort and duration, of object oriented software development projects. Different estimates may be made in different phases of the development process, according to the available information. We define an adaptation of traditional function points, called Object Oriented Function Points, to enable the measurement of object oriented analysis and design specifications. Tools have been constructed to automate the counting method. The novel aspect of our method is its flexibility. An organisation can experiment with different counting policies, to find the most accurate predictors of size, effort, etc. in its environment. The method and preliminary results of its application in an industrial environment are presented and discussed.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132011572","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":"On evidence supporting the FEAST hypothesis and the laws of software evolution","authors":"M. Lehman, J. Fernández-Ramil, D. Perry","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731229","url":null,"abstract":"As part of its study of the impact of feedback in the global software process on software product evolution, the FEAST/1 project has examined metric data relating to various systems in different application areas. High level similarities in the growth trends of the systems studied support the FEAST hypothesis. Inter alia, the results provide evidence compatible with the laws of software evolution, subject only to minor adjustments of the latter.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124264635","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":"Business impact, benefit, and cost of applying GQM in industry: an in-depth, long-term investigation at Schlumberger RPS","authors":"A. Birk, R. Solingen, J. Järvinen","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731231","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731231","url":null,"abstract":"Many success stories have been reported on specific effects of measurement, but little is known about the multiple interactions of measurement programmes with the business environment of a software organisation. This paper summarises industrial experiences with the Goal/Question/Metric (GQM) approach to software engineering measurement. They are based on long-term observation and additional detailed investigations at Schlumberger RPS. The paper reports the business impact of GQM in terms of identified benefit, cost models, and factors for successful application of GQM.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"202 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132890862","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":"Inferring change effort from configuration management databases","authors":"T. Graves, A. Mockus","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731253","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we describe a methodology and algorithm for historical analysis of the effort necessary for developers to make changes to software. The algorithm identifies factors which have historically increased the difficulty of changes. This methodology has implications for research into cost drivers. As an example of a research finding, we find that a system under study was \"decaying\" in that changes grew more difficult to implement at a rate of 20% per year. We also quantify the difference in costs between changes that fix faults and additions of new functionality: fixes require 80% more effort after accounting for size. Since our methodology adds no overhead to the development process, we also envision it being used as a project management tool: for example, developers can identify code modules which have grown more difficult to change than previously, and can match changes to developers with appropriate expertise. The methodology uses data from a change management system, supported by monthly time sheet data if available. The method's performance does not degrade much when the quality of the time sheet data is limited. We validate our results using a survey of the developers under study: the change efforts resulting from the algorithm match the developers' opinions. Our methodology includes a technique based on the jackknife to determine factors that contribute significantly to change effort.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128776012","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":"A cohesion measure for classes in object-oriented systems","authors":"H. Chae","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731241","url":null,"abstract":"Classes are the fundamental concepts in the object-oriented paradigm. They are the basic units of object-oriented programs, and serve as the units of encapsulation, which promotes the modifiability and the reusability of them. In order to take full advantage of the desirable features provided by classes, such as data abstraction and encapsulation, classes should be designed to have good quality. Because object-oriented systems are developed by heavily reusing the existing classes, the classes of poor quality can be a serious obstacle to the development of systems. We define a new cohesion measure for assessing the quality of classes. Our approach is based on the observations on the salient natures of classes which have not been considered in the previous approaches. A Most Cohesive Component (MCC) is introduced as the most cohesive form of a class. We believe that the cohesion of a class depends on the connectivity of itself and its constituent components. We propose the connectivity factor to indicate the degree of the connectivity among the members of a class, and the structure factor to take into account the cohesiveness of its constituent components. Consequently, the cohesion of a class is defined as the product of the connectivity factor and the structure factor. This cohesion measure indicates how closely a class approaches MCC; the closely a class approaches MCC, the greater cohesion the class has.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122313045","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":"Human performance estimating with analogy and regression models: an empirical validation","authors":"E. Stensrud, I. Myrtveit","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731247","url":null,"abstract":"Most cost estimation models seem to be validated without testing human performance and using data sets from custom software projects where the software typically is sized in lines of code (SLOC) or function points. From a practitioner's point of view this research seems not to address some important aspects of IT projects that we observe: estimating in an industrial environment is performed by people, not models; COTS projects are increasing their market share replacing traditional custom software projects; and industrial projects use a large variety of metrics to size the project deliverables and estimate the costs. Estimation by analogy tools like ANGEL and multiple regression analysis provide the necessary flexibility in terms of choice of input parameters. We describe an experiment to evaluate human performance where the subjects were aided by analogy and regression tools respectively. 68 partners and managers in Andersen Consulting estimated 48 different COTS projects. The results in terms of MMRE indicate that users benefit from both tools, however more from regression models than from analogy models as ANGEL. Furthermore, the performance of the ANGEL tool itself is not superior to the performance of the regression model. This result is contradictory to previous studies that claim that ANGEL outperforms multiple regression.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122665495","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 integrated process and product model","authors":"N. Schneidewind","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731249","url":null,"abstract":"The relationship between product quality and process capability and maturity has been recognized as a major issue in software engineering based on the premise that improvements in process will lead to higher quality products. To this end, we have been investigating an important facet of process capability, stability, as defined and evaluated by trend, change, and shape metrics, across releases and within a release. Our integration of product and process measurement and evaluation serves the dual purpose of using metrics to assess and predict reliability and risk and concurrently using these metrics for process stability evaluation. We use the NASA Space Shuttle flight software to illustrate our approach.","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"124 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127793463","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":"The internal consistency of the ISO/IEC 15504 software process capability scale","authors":"K. El Emam","doi":"10.1109/METRIC.1998.731228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1998.731228","url":null,"abstract":"ISO/IEC 15504 is an emerging international standard for software process assessment. It has undergone a major change in the rating scale used to measure the capability of processes. The objective of this paper is to present a follow up evaluation of the internal consistency of this process capability scale. Internal consistency is a form of reliability of a subjective measurement instrument. A previous study evaluated the internal consistency of the first version of the ISO/IEC 15504 document set (also known as SPICE version 1). In the current study we evaluate the internal consistency of the second version (also known as ISO/IEC PDTR 15504). Our results indicate that the internal consistency of the capability dimension did not deteriorate, and that it is still sufficiently high for practical purposes. Furthermore, we identify that the capability scale has two dimensions that we termed \"Process Implementation\" and \"Quantitative Process Management\".","PeriodicalId":444081,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings Fifth International Software Metrics Symposium. Metrics (Cat. No.98TB100262)","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114467496","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}