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Fundamental Aspects of Software Measurement

  • Chapter
Software Engineering (ISSSE 2010, ISSSE 2009, ISSSE 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 7171))

Abstract

Empirical studies are increasingly being used in Software Engineering research and practice. These studies rely on information obtained by measuring software artifacts and processes, and provide both measures and models based on measures as results. This paper illustrates a number of fundamental aspects of Software Measurement in the definition of measures that make sense, so they can be used appropriately. Specifically, we describe the foundations of measurement established by Measurement Theory and show how they can be used in Software Measurement for both internal and external software attributes. We also describe Axiomatic Approaches that have been defined in Software Measurement to capture the properties that measures for various software attributes are required to have. Finally, we show how Measurement Theory and Axiomatic Approaches can be used in an organized process for the definition and validation of measures used for building prediction models.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Informatiche e della Comunicazione, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, I-22100, Como, Italy

    Sandro Morasca

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  1. Sandro Morasca
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Software Engineering Lab, University of Salerno, Fisciano, SA, Italy

    Andrea De Lucia

  2. Università di Salerno, Via Ponte don Melillo, 84081, Fisciano, SA, Italy

    Filomena Ferrucci

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Morasca, S. (2013). Fundamental Aspects of Software Measurement. In: De Lucia, A., Ferrucci, F. (eds) Software Engineering. ISSSE ISSSE ISSSE 2010 2009 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7171. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36054-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36054-1_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36053-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36054-1

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