Measuring Object-Oriented Software Products

摘要

It is quite clear that measurement is necessary for the software development Outprocess to be successful. In addition, the path to controlling and improving the software design process may lie in the use of an object-oriented design approach. The recent movement toward object-oriented technology must also include the processes that control object-oriented development, namely software measures. Tom DeMarco summarizes the essence of these sentiments by stating, You cannot control what you cannot measure DeMarco 87. Measurement encompasses many aspects of the software life cycle. The emphasis of this document is on the design and implementation phases of an object-oriented approach. Viewing measurement from a higher level, software measurement activities must have specific objectives. After these objectives are identified, the concepts, terminology, and measures presented in this module can be used to construct a framework applicable to the environment under consideration. One such objective-oriented approach is the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) paradigm proposed by Victor Basili and H. Dieter Rombach Basili 88. The basic premise of the GQM paradigm is that any software measurement activity is preceded by a goal. This goal leads to questions which generally involve quantification of the goal. Quantification issues lead to measures. This module will assist the practitioner and instructor in deciding which measures are appropriate answers to which questions. (KAR) P. 14.