Abstract
Software maintenance has been the dominant factor contributing to the high cost of software. In this paper, the software maintenance process and the important software quality attributes that affect the maintenance effort are discussed. Among these quality attributes, the stability of a program, which indicates the resistance to the potential ripple effect that the program would have when it is modified, is an important one. Measures for estimating the stability of a program and the modules of which the program is composed are presented, and an algorithm for computing these stability measures is given. Application of these measures during the maintenance phase is discussed along with an example. Further research efforts involving validation of the stability measures, application of these measures during the design phase, and restructuring based on these measures are also discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 762580 |
| Pages (from-to) | 674-679 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Proceedings - International Computer Software and Applications Conference |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1979 |
| Event | 3rd IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 1979 - Chicago, United States Duration: Nov 6 1979 → Nov 8 1979 |
Keywords
- Logical stability
- Maintainability
- Maintenance process
- Module stability
- Potential ripple effect
- Program stability
- Software maintenance
- Software quality attributes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Computer Science Applications