A Graph-Based Metamodel for Object-Oriented Software Metrics

AbstractMetrics are essential in object-oriented software engineering for several reasons, among which quality assessment and improvement of development team productivity. While the mathematical nature of metrics calls for clear definitions, frequently there exist many contradicting definitions of the same metric depending on the implementation language. We suggest to express and define metrics using a language-independent metamodel based on graphs. This graph-based approach allows for an unambiguous definition of generic object-oriented metrics and higher-order metrics. We also report on some prototype tools that implement these ideas.We thank Kim Mens, Roel Wuyts and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on drafts of this paper