Class and object modularity : description and measurement

Class and object modularity : description and measurement

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2006

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor	McClean, Christine Olwyn	en_AU
dc.date.accessioned	2007-03-14T01:53:12Z
dc.date.accessioned	2012-12-15T03:52:38Z
dc.date.available	2007-03-14T01:53:12Z
dc.date.available	2012-12-15T03:52:38Z
dc.date.issued	2006
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/20186
dc.description	University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering.
dc.description.abstract	Software measurement has been of interest to software engineers for almost as long as software has been developed. While the evolution of systematic processes of software development has seen a trend away from reliance on the expertise of individual software developers alone to ensure software quality, systematic processes of software measure development have not evolved to a similar extent. The problem with defining software measures according to an informal process is that the quality of measures can be highly dependent on the expertise of the individual measure developers. If a systematic process of software measure development were defined, that promoted transparency and objectivity in measure development, then this systematic process could support the development of high quality measures by less expert users. In this thesis, a systematic process of software descriptive measure development is described and demonstrated. The approach taken to defining this systematic process is to investigate the various processes by which currently available software descriptive measures have been developed. These processes are then amalgamated with an established systematic method of measure development used in the field of social science. Applying the stages of measure development thus identified to the task of developing measures to describe C++ class and object modularity tests the feasibility of this measure development process. Insights gained through this testing provide feedback to further refine the process. In this way, a systematic process of descriptive software measure development is defined alongside the definition of a set of measures that provide a detailed description of the complex software characteristic of modularity. The products of each stage of this measure development process assist a user to validate the measures with respect to an intended application, and to analyse and interpret the measurement data obtained by applying the measures to a software system. This is demonstrated in a case study that also provides an indirect indication of the quality of the process by which the measures were developed. The major contribution of this work is the systematic process of descriptive software measure development, as it has a wide application and can be used to develop measures to describe many software characteristics of interest. A second important contribution is made by the set of measures of C++ class and object modularity developed to demonstrate this systematic descriptive measure development process.	en_AU
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)	en_AU
dc.format.extent	95158 bytes
dc.format.extent	1650085 bytes
dc.format.extent	1734550 bytes
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.language	en	en_AU
dc.language.iso	en_AU
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/20186/2021/02Whole.pdf
dc.relation.replaces	http://hdl.handle.net/2100/306
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.rights	http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/disclaimer.html	en_AU
dc.rights	Copyright Christine McClean	en_AU
dc.subject	Software.	en_AU
dc.subject	Measurement.	en_AU
dc.subject	Quality.	en_AU
dc.subject	Object Oriented Methods.	en_AU
dc.title	Class and object modularity : description and measurement	en_AU
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

Software measurement has been of interest to software engineers for almost as long as software has been developed. While the evolution of systematic processes of software development has seen a trend away from reliance on the expertise of individual software developers alone to ensure software quality, systematic processes of software measure development have not evolved to a similar extent. The problem with defining software measures according to an informal process is that the quality of measures can be highly dependent on the expertise of the individual measure developers. If a systematic process of software measure development were defined, that promoted transparency and objectivity in measure development, then this systematic process could support the development of high quality measures by less expert users. In this thesis, a systematic process of software descriptive measure development is described and demonstrated. The approach taken to defining this systematic process is to investigate the various processes by which currently available software descriptive measures have been developed. These processes are then amalgamated with an established systematic method of measure development used in the field of social science. Applying the stages of measure development thus identified to the task of developing measures to describe C++ class and object modularity tests the feasibility of this measure development process. Insights gained through this testing provide feedback to further refine the process. In this way, a systematic process of descriptive software measure development is defined alongside the definition of a set of measures that provide a detailed description of the complex software characteristic of modularity. The products of each stage of this measure development process assist a user to validate the measures with respect to an intended application, and to analyse and interpret the measurement data obtained by applying the measures to a software system. This is demonstrated in a case study that also provides an indirect indication of the quality of the process by which the measures were developed. The major contribution of this work is the systematic process of descriptive software measure development, as it has a wide application and can be used to develop measures to describe many software characteristics of interest. A second important contribution is made by the set of measures of C++ class and object modularity developed to demonstrate this systematic descriptive measure development process.

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