A Unified Framework for Cohesion Measurement

The increasing importance being placed on software measurement has led to an increased amount of research developing new software measures. Given the importance of object-oriented development techniques, one specific area where this has occurred is cohesion measurement in object-oriented systems. However, despite an interesting body of work, there is little understanding of the motivations and empirical hypotheses behind many of these new measures. It is often difficult to determine how such measures relate to one another and for which application they can be used. As a consequence, it is very difficult for practitioners and researchers to obtain a clear picture of the state-of-the-art in order to select or define cohesion measures for object-oriented systems.To help remedy this situation a unified framework, based on the issues discovered in a review of object-oriented cohesion measures, is presented. The unified framework contributes to an increased understanding of the state-of-the-art as it is a mechanism for (i) comparing measures and their potential use, (ii) integrating existing measures which examine the same concepts in different ways, and (iii) facilitating more rigorous decision making regarding the definition of new measures and the selection of existing measures for a specific goal of measurement.