Measuring class coupling and cohesion: a formal metamodel approach
Simon Moser, Vojislav B. Mišić · 2002
Metamodeling, object-orientation and formal methods are three promising ways to cope with the increasing size and complexity of today's software systems. Furthermore, effective control of development projects requires the use of versatile metrics for software size and complexity. We present a generic formal object-oriented metamodel (GM), specifically tailored for modeling object-oriented software systems, and use it as the foundation for defining two basic measures of structural quality: coupling and cohesion. Even though these two notions are generic, we restrict ourselves to defining them at the class level, which is probably the most useful for object-oriented systems. The metrics have a generic formal definition, which makes them simple, intuitive, and amenable to automated measurement.