Contributing Scholar - Linda Ott, Michigan Technological University
3 Semester Credit Hours
Course Description
This course discusses measurement theory; development, validation, and use of software measures. In addition, software product measures including design measures and measures of software complexity are examined along with the process measures in the life cycle, including cost estimation, programmer productivity, test coverage, software reuse, and software reliability.
Prerequisites
- Programming experience in both the procedural paradigm (e.g., C, Pascal) and the object-oriented paradigm (e.g., C++ or Java)
- Elementary statistics
- Overview knowledge of software engineering principles and methods
Course Objectives
- Suggest suitable metrics for a given software development application
- Determine if a proposed metric is a suitable measure of a given attribute
- Evaluate claims about the ability to use certain metrics for prediction of other software attributes or software development process attributes
- Use software measures in a meaningful fashion as part of the software development process
Course Topics
The following topics will be covered in the order given.
- What is Measurement?
- Measurement in SE
- Measurement Fundamentals
- Models and Scales
- Meaningfulness and Validation
- Review of Statistics
- Measuring Simple Internal Product Attributes
- Measuring Simple Internal Product Attributes -- Structure
- Measuring Internal Product Attributes -- Complexity
- Measuring Internal Product Attributes -- Cohesion
- Validating Measures of Cohesion
- Measuring Cohesion in the Object-Oriented Paradigm
- Evaluating Cohesion Measuress in the Object-Oriented Paradigm
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- Measuring Internal Product Attributes -- Coupling in Procedural Paradigm
- Coupling in Object-Oriented Paradigm
- External Product Attributes -- Quality
- Measurement and Prediction -- Defects and Reliability
- Measurement and Prediction -- Reliability Prediction
- Process and Resource Measurement -- Productivity
- Process and Resource Prediction Effort and Cost
- Measurement and Management -- Planning a Measurement Program
- Measurement and Management -- Measurement in Practice
- Presenting Metrics Effectively
- Current Topics in Metrics - "Validating" Software Metrics
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Technical Requirements
Software and Multimedia - Browser Plug-Ins:
The following browser plug-ins are necessary to view course materials. Links are provided in the Course Support area to a download area if you need a reader plugin.
- Windows Media Player 9 or latest
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 or latest
You will be required to have Windows Media Player to view the lectures. For the standard technical requirements, please go to the link below: http://www.waldenu.edu/c/Files/DocsGeneral/Getting_Started_Guide.pdf
Textbooks
- Fenton, N. & Pfleeger, S. L. Software Metrics: A Rigorous and Practical Approach, Revised . Boston: Course Technology, 1998. ISBN: 0534954251. Required
- Laird, L. & Brennan, M. C. Software Measurement and Estimation: A Practical Approach. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Interscience, 2006. Required
- Course Reader
Disclaimer: The course syllabus may differ slightly from this. Course descriptions will be provided in your online course. Textbook information is provided only to give more information about the course. Do Not use this information to purchase a textbook. Up-to-date information will be provided when you register.
