Measuring Maintenance Effort in Object Oriented Software with Indirect Coupling

Abstract

Measurement of maintenance effort in object oriented software engineering is one of the major challenges. Coupling among classes is one of the major factors determining the maintenance effort. Coupling is measured as strength of interconnection or interdependence between different parts of the Classes in object oriented software. It is widely accepted that there is strong relationship between high coupling and poor maintainability. Indirect coupling which is transitive in nature manifests between two seemingly unrelated parts of the system through hidden connections plays a major role in determining maintenance effort. This research proposes a set of metrics which determines maintenance effort for software with Indirect Coupling.