Exploring the Relationship between UML Design Metrics for Web Applications and Maintainability

Emad Ghosheh, Sue Black, Epaminondas Kapetanios, Mark Baldwin
Department of Information and Software Systems, University of Westminster London, UK

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Abstract

The size and complexity of web applications is increasing at an extremely rapid rate. Many web applications have evolved from simple HTML pages to complex service-oriented applications that have high maintenance costs. UML web design metrics are used to gauge whether the maintainability cost of the system can be controlled by correlating the UML design metrics to dierent measures of maintainability. This research empirically explores the relationships between existing UML design metrics based on Conallen's extension for web applications and maintenance eort. This research is evaluated, through an empirical case study of an industrial web application from the telecommunications domain.

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About the authors

		Emad Ghosheh is a Ph.D researcher in computer science at the University of Westminster. Emad has more than ten years of experience in software development in the telecommunications industry. Emad's primary expertise is in developing network provisioning, fault management and billing solutions for the telecommunications industry. During his career Emad worked with top telecommunication and IT companies such as AT&T, Nextel, Telus Communication in Canada, Sprint and IBM. E.Ghosheh@student.westminster.ac.uk.
		Sue Black is currently Head of Department, Department of Information and Software Systems, University of Westminster. Dr Black is primarily interested in nding solutions to practical software engineering problems and as such has recently co-founded a research centre: Centre for Information and Software Systems Engineering at the University of Westminster to address these problems. Her research is in the area of source code analysis, software measurement, software maintenance and software evolution. Dr Black is a Fellow of the British Computer Society: FBCS. .black@westminster.ac.uk. See also http://www.sueblack.co.uk.
		Epaminondas Kapetanios received his M.Sc. degree at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany, Faculty of Computer Science, Institute for Program Structures and Data Organization, while focusing on the development of Information Systems and Database Technologies. He received his Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Information Systems, Department of Computer Science, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland, where he designed and contributed in the implementation of an ontology driven, high level query language (MDDQL). Epaminondas is currently holding a position as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Westminster, London, UK. e.kapetanios@wmin.ac.uk. See also http://www2.wmin.ac.uk/ kapetae/.
		Mark Baldwin is currently a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Information and Software Systems and member of the Centre for Information and Software Systems Engineering research at the University of Westminster. Mark's primary area of expertise is mathematical modeling and statistical analysis and he is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. baldwim@wmin.ac.uk. See also http://www.wmin.ac.uk/hscs/page-442.

Emad Ghosheh, Sue Black, Epaminondas Kapetanios, Mark Baldwin: “Exploring the Relationship between UML Design Metrics for Web Applications and Maintainability”, in Journal of Object Technology, vol. 9, no. 3, May- June 2010, pp. 125-144. http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2010_05/article5/

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