Research proposal : objective evaluation of object oriented design quality

Given two designs that meet the same specification -- to what extent can we use objective measures to assert that either of the designs is of superior quality? This research focuses on design quality at the class interaction-level and the extent to which we can compare the quality of software designs - with an aim of being able to identify exemplars of 'good design' and give practical advice on design problems in both industrial and educational settings. An initial pilot study examining "program to an interface" use in open source systems has identified that any general notion of design quality must be applicable across a wide range of systems and architectures