Software complexity measurement using multiple criteria

Abstract

One of the challenges in software development is measuring and estimating software complexity at various levels of development. It is difficult to manage a software project without having well-developed measuring techniques. The term 'software complexity' is used to indicate the testability, maintainability, readability, and/or comprehensibility of a program. In the past, complexity is often measured by code size (lines of code), but that does not provide a measure of how difficult it is to understand or code the program. This research describes a quantitative method to measure software complexity, thus enabling us to apply appropriate resources towards developing, testing and maintaining the software. Using code abstractions in statechart diagrams, adequate measurement of software complexity is demonstrated.