Pdf maintainability index revisitedposition paper researchgate. Code metrics maintainability index the ultimate visual. Pdf how to effectively define and measure maintainability. If you search for more detail, will discover that the equation have to be cabibrated for a specific language.
The maintainability index is based on the average per file of, e. Maintainability index mi has evolved into numerous variants and has been successfully applied to a number of. The maintainability index is calculated as a factored formula consisting of sloc source lines of code, cyclomatic complexity and halstead volume. Software improvement group, amsterdam, the netherlands. An example of a discrete maintainability parameter is the number of maintenance actions completed in some time t. Color coded ratings can be used to quickly identify trouble spots in your code. Maintainability index mi has been proposed to calculate a single number that expresses the maintainability of a system. Maintainability is a measure of the ease and rapidity with which a system or equipment can be restored to operational status following a failure.
Maintainability index range and meaning code analysis. Construct a maintainability index measure tool for s oftware. However, existing definitions of maintainability, such as the halstead volume, mccabes cyclomatic complexity or the sei maintainability index provide. Maintainability index mi estimation calculation is one of the wellknown. The first model is the wellknown maintainability index mi oman and hagemeister. The set of programs used to derive the metric and evaluate it was small. It is, was constructed a model based in observation and adaptation. The software maintainability index revisited semantic scholar. Pdf the amount of effort needed to maintain a software system is related to the technical quality of the source code of a system. Reliability, availability, and maintainability the mitre. Development and application of an automated source code. This is a quick note about the maintainability index, a metric aimed at assessing software maintainability, as i recently run into developers and.
Misra, maintenance engineering and maintainability an introduction, chapter 46, handbook of performability engineering, springer, 2008. Think twice before using the maintainability index arie van. As with reliability, maintainability parameters are also probabilistic and are analyzed by the use of continuous and discrete random variables, probabilistic parameters, and statistical distributions. Maintainability and flexibility at the software level are of predominant importance to drive innovation at the business process level. However, as emphasized by heitlager et al, these metrics follow a power law, and taking the average tends to mask the presence of highrisk parts. However, existing definitions of maintainability, such as the halstead volume, mccabes cyclomatic complexity or the sei maintainability index provide a very poor understanding of what maintainability is how it.