Abstract
Source Lines of Code (SLOC) is a most basic and widely-used program size measure in software project management and/or quality assurance although it greatly depends on a programmer who implemented the program. To build a programmer-independent program size measure, this paper analyzed 9 independentlybuilt C programs of a same functional specification, and found that 3 base measures (the number of tokens, tokens of code clones, and function parameters) are useful to eliminate programmer-dependent aspects of SLOC. A new size measure called Adjusted Length of Code (ALOC) built upon these 3 base measures showed that variations of size in ALOC was at most 1.22 times difference among 9 programs while SLOC showed 3.16 times difference. Furthermore, ALOC showed at most 1.60 times difference among another 6 independently-built programs of an alternative specification while SLOC showed 4.66 times difference among these programs. These results suggest that the new measure ALOC can reduce the programmer-dependent aspects of program size and can be used as a better size measure in project management.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 377-382 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Computer Software |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
Cite this
On building programmer-independent program size measure. / Monden, Akito; Matsumoto, Ken Ichi; Uchida, Shinji.
In: Computer Software, Vol. 28, No. 4, 2011, p. 377-382.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - On building programmer-independent program size measure
AU - Monden, Akito
AU - Matsumoto, Ken Ichi
AU - Uchida, Shinji
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Source Lines of Code (SLOC) is a most basic and widely-used program size measure in software project management and/or quality assurance although it greatly depends on a programmer who implemented the program. To build a programmer-independent program size measure, this paper analyzed 9 independentlybuilt C programs of a same functional specification, and found that 3 base measures (the number of tokens, tokens of code clones, and function parameters) are useful to eliminate programmer-dependent aspects of SLOC. A new size measure called Adjusted Length of Code (ALOC) built upon these 3 base measures showed that variations of size in ALOC was at most 1.22 times difference among 9 programs while SLOC showed 3.16 times difference. Furthermore, ALOC showed at most 1.60 times difference among another 6 independently-built programs of an alternative specification while SLOC showed 4.66 times difference among these programs. These results suggest that the new measure ALOC can reduce the programmer-dependent aspects of program size and can be used as a better size measure in project management.
AB - Source Lines of Code (SLOC) is a most basic and widely-used program size measure in software project management and/or quality assurance although it greatly depends on a programmer who implemented the program. To build a programmer-independent program size measure, this paper analyzed 9 independentlybuilt C programs of a same functional specification, and found that 3 base measures (the number of tokens, tokens of code clones, and function parameters) are useful to eliminate programmer-dependent aspects of SLOC. A new size measure called Adjusted Length of Code (ALOC) built upon these 3 base measures showed that variations of size in ALOC was at most 1.22 times difference among 9 programs while SLOC showed 3.16 times difference. Furthermore, ALOC showed at most 1.60 times difference among another 6 independently-built programs of an alternative specification while SLOC showed 4.66 times difference among these programs. These results suggest that the new measure ALOC can reduce the programmer-dependent aspects of program size and can be used as a better size measure in project management.
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M3 - Article
VL - 28
SP - 377
EP - 382
JO - Computer Software
JF - Computer Software
SN - 0289-6540
IS - 4
ER -