CS 68191 Masters Seminar / CS 89191 Doctoral Seminar
Spring 2008
Software Engineering Metrics
Jyotsna Duvvuri
(Masters Student Presentation)
Measurement is the process of empirical Objective assignment of
numbers to properties of objects or events of the real world to
describe them. An attribute is a measurable physical or abstract
property of an entity. A quality factor is a type of attribute and is
a management-oriented attribute of software that contributes to its
quality. Software Metrics validation starts with a thorough analysis
of the metric and, the attribute we are attempting to measure. The
validation criteria are expressed in terms of quantitative
relationships between the attribute being measured and the
metric. Direct measures need not be validated according to IEEE
standards. "Direct" measurement of an attribute involves a metric that
depends only on the value of the attribute, but few or no software
engineering attributes or tasks are so simple that measures of them
can be direct. This is one of the main reasons as why all metrics
should be validated. My talk would be a framework proposed for
evaluating metrics, and applying it to two uses of bug counts. Bug
counts capture only a small part of the meaning of the attributes they
are being used to measure. Multidimensional analyses of attributes, is
a good way of determining the attribute quality.