A Function Oriented Software Cohesion Metrics

Abstract

Cohesion is one of the most important factors for software quality as well as maintainability, reliability and reus ability. Cohesion is defined as a quality attribute that seeks to measure the singleness of the purpose of a module. A coincidental cohesion is the lowest degree of cohesion in a module. A functional cohesion is the highest degree of cohesion in a module. For software managers and engineers, it will be inevitable to introduce a well-defined and well-examined cohesion metrics to produce desirable cohesion software. In this paper, we propose a function -oriented cohesion metrics based on the analysis of live variables and live span. They will be developed in a mathematical model, and be experimented using typical cohesion examples. As of the results of experiments, the proposed cohesion metrics not only matches the Fenton's cohesion strength spectrum but also meets nonlinear scale that is asserted by Pressman and Somerville in their literatures.