Metrics for Software Conceptual Models (Electronic book text)

The idea that measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality software systems is gaining relevance. Moreover, it is widely recognised that the key to obtaining better software systems is to measure the quality characteristics of early artefacts, produced at the conceptual modelling phase. Therefore, improving the quality of conceptual models is a major step towards the improvement of software system development. Since the 1970s, software engineers had been proposing high quantities of metrics for software products, processes and resources but had not been paying any special attention to conceptual modelling. By the mid-1990s, however, the need for metrics for conceptual modelling had emerged. This book provides an overview of the most relevant existing proposals of metrics for conceptual models, covering conceptual models for both products and processes.