A Metric Suite to Support Software Product Line Architecture Evaluation

This paper presents a metric suite to support software product line architecture (PLA) evaluation. The metric suite was conceived taking into account the variabilities defined on the UML artefacts of the product line based on specific stereotypes. The metrics definition was supported by the SDMetrics tool. An example illustrates the correlation between the metrics and the PL architecture quality attributes for complexity, maintainability and testability. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First and foremost, to provide an alternative of using the metric suite to propose new metrics to perform PLA evaluation based on quality attributes. Second, to allow the comparison of PL configurations to support decision making regarding the PL feasibility in respect to efforts of PL development. An evaluation concerning the PL complexity is presented showing how the metric suite can support PLA evaluations. Moreover, four additional complex class metrics which are specific for PLA evaluation based on quality attributes are proposed. We are currently working on the proposal of an evaluation model and a tool to support PLA evaluation based on the experimental software engineering concepts.