The Application Of 1KB S Technology ToSoftware Design Measurement AndImprovement

Abstract

This report investigates current applications of Intelligent Knowledgebased Systems (IKBS) technology to the problem of software design measurement and improvement, and provides a comparative evaluation of six different approaches to this area, based on a common framework of technical and business criteria. Although there are few applications of IKBS in this area, those which do exist illustrate the different directions which future research could follow, and are encouraging enough for such paths to be explored. INTRODUCTION The importance of producing a quality design for a software system has been recognised for many years, and ideas of what a 'quality design' is have matured considerably since the notions of information hiding and structured programming were first introduced. One approach to improving the quality of designs is to provide quality measures which can be used to pinpoint weaknesses and deficiencies and therefore to judge how 'good' a design is. Unfortunately, qualitative, heuristic approaches are more prevalent than quantitative or algorithmic ones; even if numerical measures of design quality (metrics) are used, their ultimate interpretation and translation into an improved design is best left to a human expert. Such a problem area appears to be an ideal one for IKBS (Intelligent Knowledge-Based Systems) treatment [1, 2], However, few attempts have been made so far to produce knowledge-based support for software design measurement and improvement although it is clearly an area which would benefit from such support. This paper investigates the current applications of IKBS technology in this area and provides a comparative evaluation of these applications based on a common framework of technical and business criteria. Assessing the suitability of particular measurement techniques or metrics has not been an aim of this paper. Also, the wider question concerning our current understanding of design quality is not discussed Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 4, © 1993 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517