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Empirical Study of Object-Oriented Metrics 

K.K.Aggarwal, Yogesh Singh, Arvinder Kaur and Ruchika Malhotra
School of Information Technology, GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi 110006, India


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Abstract

The increasing importance of software measurement has led to development of new software measures. Many metrics have been proposed related to various constructs like class, coupling, cohesion, inheritance, information hiding and polymorphism. But there is a little understanding of the empirical hypotheses and application of many of these measures. It is often difficult to determine which metric is more useful in which area. As a consequence, it is very difficult for project managers and practitioners to select measures for object-oriented systems. In this paper we investigate 22 metrics proposed by various researchers. The metrics are first defined and then explained using practical applications. They are applied on standard projects on the basis of which descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and correlation analysis is presented. Finally, a review of the empirical study concerning chosen metrics and subset of these measures that provide sufficient information is given and metrics providing overlapping information are excluded from the set.

Key Words: Software Measurement, Object-Oriented Software, Coupling, Cohesion, Inheritance, Information-Hiding, Polymorphism


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About the authors



 

K. K. Aggarwal is vice chancellor at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India. He received his doctorate from Kurushetra University. He was president of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) from 2002 through 2004. Recently he was awarded "Delhi Ratan Bhuddhijeevi Samman" by the All India Conference of Intellectuals (AICI). Prof. Aggarwal has written few books and many of his articles have appeared in several books published by IEEE of USA. He is coauthor of a book on software engineering and has published more than 300 publications in national and international journals and conferences. He can be reached by e-mail at kka@ipu.edu.



 

Yogesh Singh is a professor with the University School of Information Technology and the School of Engineering and Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Kashmere Gate, India. He received his master's degree and doctorate from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra. His area of research is Software Engineering focusing on Planning, Testing, Metrics and Neural Networks. He is coauthor of a book on software engineering, and is a Fellow of IETE and member of IEEE. He has more than 150 publications in international and national journals and conferences. Singh can be contacted by e-mail at ys66@rediffmail.com.



 

Arvinder Kaur is a Reader with the University School of Information Technology. She obtained her doctorate from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and her master's degree in computer science from Thapar Institute of Engg. and Tech. Her research interests include software engineering, object-oriented software engineering, software metrics, microprocessors, and operating systems. She is also a lifetime member of ISTE and CSI. Kaur has published more than 30 research papers in national and international journals and conferences. Her paper titled "Analysis of object oriented Metrics" was published as a chapter in the book Innovations in Software Measurement (Shaker -Verlag, Aachen 2005). She can be reached by e-mail at arvinderkaurtakkar@yahoo.com.

 

Ruchika Malhotra is a research scholar with the University School of Information Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India. She is working as a visiting faculty with Amity Institute of Information Technology, India. She received her master's degree in software engineering from the University School of Information Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India. Her research interests are in improving software quality, statistical and adaptive prediction models for software metrics, neural nets modeling, and the definition and validation of software metrics. She has more than 10 publications in international journals and conferences. Her paper titled "Analysis of object oriented Metrics" was published as a chapter in the book Innovations in Software Measurement (Shaker -Verlag, Aachen 2005). She can be contacted by e-mail at ruchikamalhotra2004@yahoo.com.


Cite this article as follows: K.K.Aggarwal, Yogesh Singh, Arvinder Kaur, Ruchika Malhotra: "Empirical Study of Object-Oriented Metrics", in Journal of Object Technology, vol. 5. no. 8, Novmeber-December 2006, pp. 149-173. http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2006_11/article5


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