Using metrics to predict OO information systems maintainability

Abstract

The quality of object oriented information systems (OOIS) depends greatly on the decisions taken at early phases of their development. As an early available artifact the quality of the class diagram is crucial to the success of system development. Class diagrams lay the foundation for all later design work. So, their quality heavily affects the product that will be ultimately implemented. Even though the appearance of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a standard of modelling OOIS has contributed greatly towards building quality OOIS, it is not enough. Early availability of metrics is a key factor in the successful management of OOIS development. The aim of this paper is to present a set of metrics for measuring the structural complexity of UML class diagrams and to use them for predicting their maintainability that will heavily be correlated with OOIS maintainability.