Date of Graduation

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

Committee Chair

Hany H. Ammar

Abstract

Software Metrics have become an integral part of software development and are used during every phase of the software development life cycle. Research in the area of software metrics tends to focus predominantly on static metrics that are obtained by static analysis of the software artifact. These static metrics are readily available through automated tools and are widely used. However software quality attributes such as performance, reliability and error rates depend on the dynamic behavior of the software artifact. Hence, estimating software quality attributes based on dynamic behavior (dynamic metrics) of software system is more accurate and realistic. Dynamic metrics are usually available only late in the development cycle, typically from execution traces of the code or from executable models. Research on dynamic metrics is still sporadic and lacks a unified, systematic methodology. The research proposed in this study focuses on two problems: (i) Studying and analyzing the relationship between static and dynamic metrics (ii) Developing a systematic approach to the problem of capturing the dynamic behavior of a system early in the software development cycle. Fin this work we present empirical studies aiming to analyze the relationship between static and dynamic coupling metrics. We also introduce the concept of pseudo dynamic metrics to estimate the dynamic behavior early in the software lifecycle. This concept is based on static metrics augmented with the estimated operational profile.

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