A Pedagogical Evaluation and Discussion about the Lack of Cohesion in Method (LCOM) Metric Using Field Experiment

Chidamber and Kemerer first defined a cohesion measure for object-oriented software – the Lack of Cohesion in Methods (LCOM) metric. This paper presents a pedagogic evaluation and discussion about the LCOM metric using field data from three industrial systems. System 1 has 34 classes, System 2 has 383 classes and System 3 has 1055 classes. The main objectives of the study were to determine if the LCOM metric was appropriate in the measurement of class cohesion and the determination of properly and improperly designed classes in the studied systems. Chidamber and Kemerer’s suite of metric was used as metric tool. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze results. The result of the study showed that in System 1, 78.8% (26 classes) were cohesive; System 2 54% (207 classes) were cohesive; System 3 30% (317 classes) were cohesive. We suggest that the LCOM metric measures class cohesiveness and was appropriate in the determination of properly and improperly designed classes in the studied system.