
Software has become a complex piece of work by the collective efforts of many. And it is often hard to predict what the final outcome will be. This transition poses new challenge to the Software Engineering (SE) community. By employing methods from the study of complex network, we investigate the Object Oriented (OO) software metrics from a different perspective. We incorporate the Weighted Methods per Class (WMC) metric into our definition of the Weighted OO Software Coupling Network as the node weight. Empirical results from four open source OO software demonstrate power law distribution of weight and a clear correlation between the weight and the out degree. According to its definition, it suggests uneven distribution of function among classes and a close correlation between the functionality of a class and the number of classes it depending on. Further experiment shows similar distribution also exists between average LCOM and WMC as well as out degree. These discoveries will help uncover the underlying mechanisms of software evolution and will be useful for SE to cope with the emerged complexity in software as well as efficient test cases design.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 10 | |
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| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
