Improvements to a complexity metric: CB measure

Abstract

Controlling the complexity of software applications is an essential part of the software development process as it directly affects maintenance activities such as reusability, understandability, modifiability and testability. However, as stated by Tom DeMarco “You cannot control what you cannot measure”. Thus, over the years many complexity metrics have been proposed with the intention of controlling and minimizing the complexity associated with software. However, majority of these proposed complexity metrics are based on only one aspect of complexity. The CB measure introduced by Chhillar and Bhasin is one metric which relies on a number of complexity factors to decide on the complexity of a program. However, it also has some shortcomings and can be further improved. Thus, this paper attempts to propose some additional complexity factors that the CB measure has not considered, to further improve it. The paper also presents an extensive coverage about the software complexity metrics proposed in the literature.