Databorough – Producers of X-Analysis

Using Complexity Metrics To Improve Project Management

 

Maintaining and enhancing legacy systems is one of the toughest challenges in all of software engineering.

 

Projects often stumble over unexpected difficulties presented by existing code. Given that typical legacy RPG, COBOL and 2E applications often exceed a million lines of code, and sometimes far more than that, it is not surprising that no individual can know all aspects of an application.

 

Complexity metrics, also known as software metrics, is a discipline that has evolved over the last few decades to give managers, architects and lead developers the means to understand where the complexities and challenges lie within an application.

 

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With the X-Audit module of X-Analysis, Databorough delivers the only full-featured complexity metrics tool available for RPG, COBOL and 2E on the IBM i platform.

 

Industry standard metrics include:

  • Cyclomatic complexity
  • Halstead volume
  • Maintainability Index

Numerous specialized metrics relevant to typical IBM i applications include:

  • Depth of nested conditional logic
  • Number of GOTO statements
  • Counts of device and database files
  • Counts of calling and called programs
  • Plus 20 other specialized metrics and indicators

All these metrics are available at both program and subroutine/procedure level to help you pinpoint complexity that affects your projects.

 

By using this knowledge, more intelligent plans can be made when modifying the application in an effort to

  • Estimate and plan more accurately
  • Obtain objective, consistent and quantifiable information about system complexity
  • Lower overall project costs
  • Reduce project timelines
  • Reduce the rate of defects

The above video gives an overview how complexity metrics can be used with X-Analysis. Simply use the form on the right side of this page if you would to like to sign up for a free trial.