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Empirical Software Engineering

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01-06-2015

Empirical evidence on the link between object-oriented measures and external quality attributes: a systematic literature review

Authors: Ronald Jabangwe, Jürgen Börstler, Darja Šmite, Claes Wohlin

Published in: Empirical Software Engineering | Issue 3/2015

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Abstract

There is a plethora of studies investigating object-oriented measures and their link with external quality attributes, but usefulness of the measures may differ across empirical studies. This study aims to aggregate and identify useful object-oriented measures, specifically those obtainable from the source code of object-oriented systems that have gone through such empirical evaluation. By conducting a systematic literature review, 99 primary studies were identified and traced to four external quality attributes: reliability, maintainability, effectiveness and functionality. A vote-counting approach was used to investigate the link between object-oriented measures and the attributes, and to also assess the consistency of the relation reported across empirical studies. Most of the studies investigate links between object-oriented measures and proxies for reliability attributes, followed by proxies for maintainability. The least investigated attributes were: effectiveness and functionality. Measures from the C&K measurement suite were the most popular across studies. Vote-counting results suggest that complexity, cohesion, size and coupling measures have a better link with reliability and maintainability than inheritance measures. However, inheritance measures should not be overlooked during quality assessment initiatives; their link with reliability and maintainability could be context dependent. There were too few studies traced to effectiveness and functionality attributes; thus a meaningful vote-counting analysis could not be conducted for these attributes. Thus, there is a need for diversification of quality attributes investigated in empirical studies. This would help with identifying useful measures during quality assessment initiatives, and not just for reliability and maintainability aspects.

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From here on in, the original LCOM proposed by Chidamber and Kemerer (1991) is referred to as LCOM1

Total vote-counting on the y-axis is the sum of the number of “++”, “– –”, “+” results “–”, where “++” and “– –” are both multiplied by two and each “+”, “–” and “Unclear” result is one point.

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Title: Empirical evidence on the link between object-oriented measures and external quality attributes: a systematic literature review
Authors: Ronald Jabangwe
Jürgen Börstler
Darja Šmite
Claes Wohlin
Publication date: 01-06-2015
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Empirical Software Engineering / Issue 3/2015
Print ISSN: 1382-3256
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7616
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-013-9291-7

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