Analysis and enhancements of a cognitive based complexity measure

Abstract

As stated by Tom DeMacro, something that cannot be measured is uncontrollable. Thus, a number of metrics have been developed to measure the complexity associated with software by considering various aspects such as size, control flow and data flow between modules, cognitive informatics etc. Amongst these aspects, cognitive informatics is recognized as a promising aspect in measuring software complexity. Thus, majority of the complexity metrics that were proposed after the introduction of cognitive informatics have been proposed mainly based on the cognitive aspect. Amongst them, Chhillar and Bhasins' weighted composite complexity measure is one of the few metrics that had attempted to measure the complexity of a program by considering more than three or more complexity factors. After a thorough analysis, in a previous study, the authors identified that the weighted composite complexity measure could be further improved by considering more complexity factors. This paper extends the previous study to identify the most appropriate factors that could be considered by the weighted composite complexity measure. Using the opinions of the industry experts, the authors were able to discover that compound conditional statements, threads and recursion could also be considered by the weighted composite complexity measure. Accordingly, the weighted composite complexity measure was enhanced to capture the complexities that arise due to those factors. The paper also includes a demonstration of the complexity calculation method of the improved weighted composite complexity measure with the use of three sample java programs, which were written by incorporating the above mentioned factors. In addition, an application of the weighted composite complexity measure to the same programs are also given in the paper, to illustrate the changes in complexity values of the two measures.