An assessment of software quality in a C++ environment

In this experience report, we discuss the application of a three group discriminant model to an object oriented software system. The model is used to classify software modules as high, medium, or low risk with respect to the number of faults. To our knowledge, this is among the first empirical validations of a true three group software quality model. Two models are presented. One model incorporates only traditional measures while the other model includes both traditional and object oriented measures. We show that for this system, the addition of the object oriented measures enhances the model by reducing the overall misclassification rate and significantly reducing the misclassification in the medium group.