Software Engineering for Students A Programming Approach

368 Chapter 29 ■ Software metrics and quality assurance
29.6 It is common practice for software development organizations to lay down standards
for coding. Suggest a number of coding standards for a programming language
of your choice. Suggest quality factors that are enhanced by adherence to the
standards.
29.7 Suggest a quality assurance plan for each of the software development projects listed
in Appendix A. Assume that each project will use the waterfall model as its process
model.
Answers to self-test questions
29.1 There are many possible suggestions. One formula that builds on
McCabe, but takes some account of references to data is:
complexity = number of decisions + (number of data references –
number of statements)
This has the characteristic that if each statement refers to one data item
only, the second term is zero.
29.2 Correctness and reliability.
29.3 Cost, size.
29.4 Correctness, reliability.
•
Further reading
A most comprehensive and readable book is: N.E. Fenton and S. Lawrence Pfleeger,
Software Metrics: A Rigorous and Practical Approach, International Thomson
Computer Press, 1996.
McCabe’s famous original cyclomatic complexity is described in this paper: J.T.
McCabe, A complexity measure, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE-2
(4) (December 1976).
A well-known book that presents a whole number of ways of measuring software: M.H.
Halstead, Elements of Software Science, Elsevier, 1977.
A most readable book on software quality. It explains what measures can be used during
each stage of software development: Darrel Ince, Software Quality Assurance: A
Student Introduction, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
The seminal book on continuous process improvement: W. Edwards Deming, Out of
the crisis: quality, productivity and competitive position, Cambridge University Press,
1986.