A design methodology for the utilization of metrics within various phases of software lifecycle models
G.M. Pollock, Sallie V. Sheppard · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 1987
A design methodology for implementing an automatable set of elementary measures that can be used in constructing composite or hybrid software metric prototypes is presented. Metric kernel primitives developed with this methodology are utilized to construct new hybrid metrics that can be applied to programs implemented in different languages and to various phases of software lifecycle models. The primary intent of the methodology is to provide a technique and subsequent environment that will enhance research in the metric area. Initial evaluations of the design methodology have investigated the application of software complexity metrics to the maintenance phase of the traditional lifecycle model. Actual primitives have been developed in the Ada/sup TM/ programming language to aid in constructing software complexity metrics. Prototypes of Halstead's metric and McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity metric were constructed from the primitives to evaluate the design methodology. The prototypes can analyze programs written in either FORTRAN or COBOL. An environment to support the design methodology has been defined and is under development.