Cyclomatic complexity metric for component based software

Abstract

Suitable Component Based Software (CBS) metrics are necessary for the efficient quantification of quality attributes of a system. One of the major quality attributes of Component Based Software systems is the complexity generated due to interactions among components. The Cyclomatic complexity of a Component Based System is independent of the physical size of the component. The Cyclomatic complexity mainly depends on the decision structure present in the component. To calculate the overall complexity of a Component Based Software System, it is necessary to include the coupling properties (intercomponent- interactions) among the components as well as the cohesive properties (intra-component-interactions) of the individual components. In this paper, a new method is proposed for Cyclomatic complexity computation for Component Based Software Systems. This method includes the individual complexities of the participating components as well as the complexities of the interacting components. McCabe's Cyclomatic complexity computation method is used as the base method to calculate the complexity of individual components. The main goal of the proposed method is to find the Cyclomatic complexity of software where multiple components interact with each other for accessing or providing services.