An OCL-Based Formalization of the MOOSE Metric Suite
Aline Lúcia Baroni, Fernando Brito e Abreu · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2003
Design metrics are useful for several means, including the improvement of software quality, the identification of fault-prone classes, the prediction of maintenance efforts, the estimation of rework efforts, etc. However, many of the existing metrics suffer from an ill definition, which leads to different interpretations and to a subsequent lack of their use, due to their informal definitions. So, in spite of research studies, design metrics have not been widely utilized in the software industry. One of the major problems that limits their use is the nonattendance of available tools to measure the metrics, which in turn can be a consequence of the metrics' imprecise specification. This paper presents an approach used to formalize metric suites in a precise way, solving the ambiguity problems that can reduce their use. The MOOSE metrics – Metrics for Object-Oriented Software Engineering – serve to exemplify the simplicity and limitations of our approach.