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A pair of coupling metrics for software networks

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Abstract

Complex networks are everywhere. A typical example is software network. How to measure and control coupling interactions of software components is a largely explored research problem in software network. In terms of graph theory and linear algebra, this paper investigates a pair of coupling metrics to evaluate coupling interactions between the classes of object-oriented systems. These metrics differ from the majority of existing metrics in three aspects: Taking into account the strength that one class depends on other ones, reflecting indirect coupling, and distinguishing various coupling interaction. An empirical comparison of the novel measures with one of the most widely used coupling metrics is described. Specifically, an experiment about the relationships of this pair metrics is conducted. The result shows that software complexity derived from coupling interaction could not be accurately reflected by one dimension of coupling metric for negative correlation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Modern Educational Technology, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, 201701, China

    Huan Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Software Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Bing Li

Authors
  1. Huan Li
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  2. Bing Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huan Li.

Additional information

This research is supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development 973 Program of China under Grant No. 2007CB310805, Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China under Grant No. 2007B4, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 60873083, 60803025, and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2006AA04Z156.

This paper was recommended for publication by Editor Jinhu LÜ.

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Li, H., Li, B. A pair of coupling metrics for software networks. J Syst Sci Complex 24, 51–60 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11424-010-8329-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11424-010-8329-9

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