Integrating a defect typology with containment metrics
Robert Bruce Kelsey · ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes · 1997
Software metrics are numerous and varied, but they are typically disjoint and seldom directly support defect causal analysis. Diagnosing problems in the development process is certainly possible with disjoint metrics, but the task is greatly simplified if at least a subset of the metrics used are both applicable throughout the development cycle and oriented towards causal analysis of process deficiencies. This paper describes one such set of metrics, the integration of phase containment metrics with a modified defect typology drawn from the traditional inspection checklist. The result is a defect typology that identifies not only coding errors but deficiencies in the procedures used to develop and qualify the product.