Selected Code-Quality Characteristics and Metrics for Internet of Things Systems

Abstract

Software code is present on multiple levels within current Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The quality of this code impacts system reliability, safety, maintainability, and other quality aspects. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of code quality-related metrics, specifically revised for the context of IoT systems. These metrics are divided into main code quality categories: Size, redundancy, complexity, coupling, unit test coverage and effectiveness, cohesion, code readability, security, and code heterogeneity. The metrics are then linked to selected general quality characteristics from the ISO/IEC 25010:2011 standard by their possible impact on the quality and reliability of an IoT system, the principal layer of the system, the code levels and the main phases of the project to which they are relevant. This analysis is followed by a discussion of code smells and their relation to the presented metrics. The overview presented in the paper is the result of a thorough analysis and discussion of the author’s team with the involvement of external subject-matter experts in which a defined decision algorithm was followed. The primary result of the paper is an overview of the metrics accompanied by applicability notes related to the quality characteristics, the system layer, the level of the code, and the phase of the IoT project.