SAMSON: An Expert System Devoted to the Help of Software Assessment

Summary

The size and the complexity of software are continuously increasing, and it is a truism that software quality measurement is necessary. However, most of quality metrics users encounter problems in selecting them and interpreting their results; this knowledge is mastered by few experts in the world. To try to overcome these problems, the MUSE esprit project (p1257) has developed a knowledge base system, SAMSON, to help software quality assessment. This paper first relates SAMSON conception and development which was based on the synergy between MUSE German and French partners, it also presents its industrial impact. The main part concerns SAMSON description, it is divided according to the two models used to design the system. The first one explains how to select the metrics with the characteristics of the assessed software and how to interpret the results. There is a lack of explanations in this model, thus the second model helps the user to understand his errors, to correct them and gives recommendations to obtain the required quality. It is important to note that the main part of the knowledge in SAMSON is standardized and that efforts have been made on the user interface, in order to give SAMSON a professional skeleton.