Metrics to Evaluate the Use of Object Oriented Frameworks

The adoption of object-oriented (OO) framework approach can increase the reuse in software development. To reach this goal, however, a high quality OO framework design is needed. Moreover, an OO framework must be used in a proper way. General principles are proposed for OO framework design and use, but it is difficult to evaluate OO framework design and OO framework use in an objective way. This work proposes metrics for quantifying features of OO frameworks and software developed using them. They are useful for evaluating OO framework use and learning how to use it, using statistical comparison with present software based on specific OO frameworks. Additionally, the metrics produce a feedback for OO framework developers. A set of tools developed for automatic gathering and for browsing this kind of information is presented, as well as experimental results.