Software complexity and its impact on software reliability
K.S. Lew, Tharam S. Dillon, K.E. Forward · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · 1988
To produce reliable software, its complexity must be controlled by suitably decomposing the software system into smaller subsystems. A software complexity metric is developed that includes both the internal and external complexity of a module. This allows analysis of a software system during its development and provides a guide to system decomposition. The basis of this complexity metric is in the development of an external complexity measure that characterizes module interaction.>