DESIGN COMPLEXITY APPROACH TO SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE

THE MCCADE CYCLOMATIC COMPLEXITY METRIC IS AN INDUSTRY ACCEPTED TOOL WHICH QUANTIFIES THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND A SOFTWARE MODULE BASED ON THE DECISION STRUCTURE OF THE CODE. IN ADDITION, THIS METRIC PROVIDESINFORMATION REGARDING THE AMOUNT OF TESTING REQUIRED TO VERIFY A SOFTWARE MODULE. TOGETHER THESE MEASURES PROVIDE AN ANALYTIC APPROACH TO SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE ISSUES. MCCABE & ASSOCIATES, INC. HAS RECENTLY IMPLEMENTED THE CYCLOMATIC COMPLEXITY METRIC AS AN AUTOMATED ANALYSIS TOOL (CAT), TO SUPPORT THE IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING PHASE OF THE SOFTWARE LIFE CYCLE. BECAUSE OF OUR EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND IN THE AREA OF COMPLEXITY AND TESTING EFFORTS, MCCADE & ASSOCIATES, INC. IS IN A UNIQUE POSITION TO EXTEND THE PRESENT COMPLEXITY THEORY TO THE SYSTEM LEVEL. BY TREATING THE STRUCTURE CHART AS A MATHEMATICAL OBJECT, QUANTIFIABLE MEASURES OF SYSTEM QUALITY WILL BE DETERMINED AS EARLY AS THE DESIGN PHASE. USING THE RESULTS OF THIS ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE 1) TEST SCENARIOS TO BE USED DURING INTEGRATION TESTING; 2) CRITICAL AREAS OF THE DESIGN IN TERMS OF MAINTAINABILITY; 3) INTERDEPENDENCE OF MODULES IN THE DESIGN, WILL SHIFT THE EMPHASIS FROM ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION TO A MORE DESIRABLE EFFORT OF ERROR PREVENTION.