Measuring Models
by Martin Monperrus, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, Joël Champeau and Brigitte Hoeltzener
Abstract: Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is an approach to software development that uses models as primary artifacts, from which code, documentation and tests are derived. One way of assessing quality assurance in a given domain is to define domain metrics. We show that some of these metrics are supported by models. As text documents, models can be considered from a syntactic point of view i.e., thought of as graphs. We can readily apply graph-based metrics to them, such as the number of nodes, the number of edges or the fan-in/fan-out distributions. However, these metrics cannot leverage the semantic structuring enforced by each specific metamodel to give domain specific information. Contrary to graph-based metrics, more specific metrics do exist for given domains (such as LOC for programs), but they lack genericity. Our contribution is to propose one metric, called $\sigma$, that is generic over metamodels and allows the easy specification of an open-ended wide range of model metrics.
Cite it:
Martin Monperrus, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, Joël Champeau and Brigitte Hoeltzener, "Measuring Models", Chapter in Model-Driven Software Development: Integrating Quality Assurance, pp. 147-169, 2008.
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-006-6.ch007[Measuring Models](https://hal.science/hal-01575355/file/Measuring-models-in-Model-Driven-Software-Development-Integrating-Quality-Assurance.pdf) ([doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-006-6.ch007](https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-006-6.ch007))
\href{https://hal.science/hal-01575355/file/Measuring-models-in-Model-Driven-Software-Development-Integrating-Quality-Assurance.pdf}{Measuring Models} % \cite{monperrus:hal-01575355}
Bibtex Entry:
@incollection{monperrus:hal-01575355,
title = {Measuring Models},
author = {Monperrus, Martin and J{\'e}z{\'e}quel, Jean-Marc and Champeau, Jo{\"e}l and Hoeltzener, Brigitte},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-01575355/file/Measuring-models-in-Model-Driven-Software-Development-Integrating-Quality-Assurance.pdf},
booktitle = {{Model-Driven Software Development: Integrating Quality Assurance}},
pages = {147-169},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.4018/978-1-60566-006-6.ch007},
}