An architecture-centric software maintainability assessment using information theory

  • Authors:

  • Muhammad Anan;Hossein Saiedian;Jungwoo Ryoo

  • Affiliations:

  • (Assistant Professor) Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, IN 46323, U.S.A.;(Professor and Associate Chair) Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, U.S.A.;(Assistant Professor) Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, Altoona, PA 16601, U.S.A.

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Architecture-based metrics can provide valuable information on whether or not one can localize the effects of modification (such as adjusting data flows or control flows) in software and can therefore be used to prevent the changes from adversely affecting other software components. This paper proposes an architecture-centric metric using entropy for assessing structural dependencies among software components. The proposed metric is based on a mathematical model representing the maintainability snapshot of a system. The introduced architectural-level metric includes measures for coupling and cohesion. From this model, the relative maintainability of a component, referred to as a maintainability profile, can be developed to identify architectural decisions that are detrimental to the maintainability of a system. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.