New complexity model for classes in object oriented system

Abstract

Minimizing software complexity is the foremost objective of each software development paradigm because it affects all other attributes of software such as maintainability, reliability, testability, reusability etc. Measuring software complexity is always essential for predicting fault proneness, computing development efforts and evaluating maintainability of software. This paper proposes a complexity model for classes in object oriented systems. The model computes Class Complexity (CC) as a sum of Method Complexity (MC) and MC is further computed as a sum of Control Flow Complexity (CFC), Total Method Call Complexity (TMCC) and Total Data Call Complexity (TDCC). CFC is computed using McCabe's cyclomatic complexity. TMCC and TDCC are computed with adherence to the principle that "The higher the number of classes involved in method/data calls and polymorphic method calls, makes the object oriented software difficult to understand and maintain". The proposed model is also compared with four Chidamber's and Kemerer's metrics-Weighted Methods per Class (WMC), Response For a Class (RFC), Depth of Inheritance Tree (DIT) and Coupling Between Objects (CBO).