A Verification of the Correspondence between Design and Implementation Quality Attributes Using a Hierarchal Quality Model
Raed Shatnawi, Ahmad Alzu · 2011
software verification is very important activity to prolong software quality. Many software systems deviate from their design when implemented. Typically, software engineers expect a high correspondence between design and implementation artifacts to ensure the quality of the final product. In this paper, we validate the use of a quality model to verify the correspondence between the artifacts of a software design and implementation. The model uses software metrics to measure the differences between the design graphical models (UML diagrams) and the source code for three external quality attributes: reusability, extendibility and understandability. The significance of the differences is verified using inferential and descriptive statistical tests. The proposed model is validated on a real open-source system that was developed in C++. The proposed model can be used to investigate the differences in a software quality either at the system or component levels. Many differences in quality attributes have been identified in the case study. The correspondence model has shown many characteristics; it is flexible, extendible and accepts different forms of design (UML diagrams) and code notations.