Eff€ort estimation and prediction of object-oriented systems

Abstract Due to the growing diffusion of the object-oriented paradigm (OOP) and the need of maintaining under control the process of software development, industries are looking for metrics capable of producing satisfactory effort estimations and predictions. These metrics have to produce results with a known confidence since the early phases of software life-cycle in order to establish a process of prediction and correction of costs. To this end, specific metrics are needed in order to maintain under control object-oriented system development. In this paper, new complexity and size metrics for effort evaluation and prediction are presented and compared with respect to the most important metrics proposed for the same purpose in the literature. The validation of the most important of these metrics is also reported. Keywords: Object-oriented metrics; Effort evaluation and prediction; Analysis and design metrics; Code metrics