Abstract

Since there is no standard formalism for defining software metrics, many of the measures that exist have some ambiguity in their definitions which hinders their comparison and implementation. We address this problem by presenting an approach for defining software metrics. This approach is based on expressing the measures as Object Constraint Language queries over a language metamodel. To illustrate the approach, we specify how the Chidamber and Kemerer metrics suite can be measured from Unified Modelling Language class diagrams by presenting formal definitions for these metrics using the Unified Modelling Language 2.0 metamodel.