Measuring complexity in C++ application software

Abstract

This paper concerns the use of design/source-code complexity metrics in analysing C++ software. It describes the use of one suite of object-oriented metrics published by Chidamber and Kemerer1 to evaluate a commercial C++ application. It provides an interpretation and critique of these metrics, including the use of two traditional metrics (Cyclomatic Complexity2 and Software Science3) in association with these object-oriented metrics. The evolution, over a two and a half year period, of one commercial grade C++ application comprising 114 classes with 25,000 lines of code is studied. The efforts consumed in bug fixes and enhancements are correlated with the complexity measures on a per class basis, and results are presented. These results are compared to those from other workers. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the practical strengths and weaknesses of the metrics suite in the light of experiences with its use. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.