doi: 10.4304/jsw.7.7.1664-1676
Embracing Composite Metrics in Software Experiments
2Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2VB, Canada
Abstract—Traditionally most Software Engineering experiments tend to formulate hypotheses and analyze an independent variable or a series of independent variables. This approach greatly reduces the type of research questions which can be explored. In addition, most Software Engineering situations are highly complex with many intertwined or ill-defined concepts, processes and “objects”. Hence, the question arises: are independent variables really sufficient for describing Software Engineering situations? This paper argues that the community needs to consider fuzzier models for Software Engineering artifacts, especially it recommends using composite indices as a mechanism to allow the greater exploration of the experimental design space. However, this extension is not without its risks; and hence in conjunction, it explains how to utilize analysis safeguards (sensitivity and uncertainty analysis) to explore any effects introduced when utilizing experimental formulations with composite metrics.
Index Terms—Composite Metrics, Sensitivity, Uncertainty, Case Study
Cite: Mohamed El-Attar, Ravi Inder Singh, and James Miller, "Embracing Composite Metrics in Software Experiments," Journal of Software vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 1664-1676, 2012.
General Information
ISSN: 1796-217X (Online)
Abbreviated Title: J. Softw.
Frequency: Quarterly
APC: 500USD
DOI: 10.17706/JSW
Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Antanas Verikas
Executive Editor: Ms. Yoyo Y. Zhou
Abstracting/ Indexing: DBLP, EBSCO,
CNKI, Google Scholar, ProQuest,
INSPEC(IET), ULRICH's Periodicals
Directory, WorldCat, etcE-mail: jsweditorialoffice@gmail.com
-
Jun 12, 2024 News!
Vol 19, No 2 has been published with online version [Click]
-
Jan 04, 2024 News!
JSW will adopt Article-by-Article Work Flow
-
Apr 01, 2024 News!
Vol 14, No 4- Vol 14, No 12 has been indexed by IET-(Inspec) [Click]
-
Apr 01, 2024 News!
Papers published in JSW Vol 18, No 1- Vol 18, No 6 have been indexed by DBLP [Click]
-
Mar 01, 2024 News!
Vol 19, No 1 has been published with online version [Click]