Measuring complexity, effectiveness and efficiency in software course projects

This paper discusses results achieved in measuring complexity, effectiveness and efficiency, in a series of related software course projects, spanning a period of seven years. We focus on how the complexity of those projects was measured, and how the success of the students in effectively and efficiently taming that complexity was assessed. This required defining, collecting, validating and analyzing several indicators of size, effort and quality; their rationales, advantages and limitations are discussed. The resulting findings helped to improve the process itself. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.8 [Software Engineering: Metrics – Complexity measures. General Terms Management, Measurement, Documentation, Design, Economics, Experimentation, Standardization, Languages, Verification. Keywords Software complexity.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Wilson Padua
• Keywords: Complexity Measures, ICSE 2010, Keywords Software Complexity, Software Course Projects, Software Engineering