Software Complexity and Software Maintenance Costs Rajiv 0. Banker Software Complexity and Software Maintenance Costs Rtbcived Software Complexity and Software Maintenance Costs

In an empirical analysis of sixty-five software maintenance projects in a large IBM COBOL transaction processing environment, the impacts of correctable software complexity upon project costs were estimated. Module size, procedure size, and the use of complex branching were all found to significantly affect software maintenance costs. It was estimated that projects involving maintenance of systems with greater underlying code complexity cost approximately 25% more than otherwise identical projects dealing with less complex code. These costs are estimated to amount to several million dollars at this data site, suggesting that the aggregate cost across the industry may be extremely large. A generalizable model is provided to allow researchers and managers in other environments to estimate and reduce these costs. ACM CR