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Reasoning about software using metrics and expert opinion

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Abstract

When comparing software programs on the basis of more than one metric a difficulty arises when the metrics are contradictory or if there are no standard acceptance thresholds. An appealing solution in such cases is to incorporate expert opinion to resolve the inconsistencies. A rigorous framework, however, is essential when fusing metrics and expert opinion in this decision-making process. Fortunately, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) can be used to facilitate rigorous decision-making in this particular problem. In this work a combination of expert opinion and tool-collected measures are used to reason about software programs using AHP. The methodology employed can be adapted to other decision-making problems in software engineering when both metrics data and expert opinion are available, some of which are described.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies, Penn State University, Malvern, USA

    Norita Ahmad & Phillip A. Laplante

Authors
  1. Norita Ahmad
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  2. Phillip A. Laplante
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Correspondence to Norita Ahmad.

Additional information

This paper is an extended version of Norita Ahmad and Phillip A. Laplante, “Employing Expert Opinion and Software Metrics for Reasoning About Software,” Third IEEE International Symposium on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing (DASC 2007), September 2007, Columbia, Maryland, USA.

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Ahmad, N., Laplante, P.A. Reasoning about software using metrics and expert opinion. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 3, 229–235 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-007-0036-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-007-0036-x

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