Quality Prediction for Component-Based Software Development: Techniques and A Generic Environment

The Chinese University of Hong Kong holds the copyright of this thesis. Any person(s) intending to use a part or the whole of the materials in this thesis in a proposed publication must seek copyright release from the Dean of the Graduate School. Abstract In this thesis, we address quality assurance issues in component-based software development. First, we propose a quality assurance (QA) model for component-based software development (CBSD), which covers eight main processes in CBSD: maintenance. We propose the Component-based Program Analysis and Reliability Evaluation (ComPARE) environment for evaluation of quality of component-based software systems. ComPARE automates the collection of different metrics, the selection of different prediction models, the formulation of user-defined models, and the validation of the established models according to fault data collected in the development process. Different from other existing tools, ComPARE takes dynamic metrics into account (such as code coverage and performance metrics), integrates them with process metrics and static code metrics for object-oriented programs (such as complexity metrics, coupling and cohesion metrics, inheritance metrics), and provides different models for integrating these metrics to an overall estimation with higher accuracy. Also, we apply different quality prediction techniques to some real world component-based programs in real world. Based on the analysis, we conclude that the quality prediction models are suitable for component-based software systems. ii Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Michael R. Lyu, for his generous guidance and patience given to me in the past two years. His numerous support and encouragement, as well as his inspiring advice are extremely essential and valuable in my research work. Also, I am grateful for his support and advice for my further study. Many thanks go to Prof. Kam-Fai Wong, without whose support and valuable advice I would not step into the component-based software development field. Thanks also go to the colleagues of Open Component Foundation, for their helpful sharing and discussions. I am so grateful to Prof. Ada Fu and Prof. Mei Hwa Chen for their precious time to serve as my thesis examiners. I would like to thank all the friends I made here. It is their friendship and encouragement that made my study and life happier and easier. I am also grateful for all the staff in the department, whose smiles and hard work provide a pleasant environment for study and research. Last but not …