Quality Metric Development Framework (^qMDF)

Several object-oriented metrics have been developed and used in conjunction with the quality models to predict the overall quality of software. However, it may not be enough to propose metrics. The fundamental question may be of their validity, utility and reliability. It may be much significant to be sure that these metrics are really useful and for that their construct validity must be assured. Thereby, good quality metrics must be developed using a foolproof and sound framework / model. A critical review of literature on the attempts in this regard reveals that there is no standard framework or model available for such an important activity. This study presents a framework for the quality metric development called Metric Development Framework (^qMDF), which is prescriptive in nature. ^qMDF is a general framework but it has been established specially with ideas of object-oriented metrics. ^qMDF has been implemented to develop a good quality design metric, as a validation of proposed framework. Finally, it is defended that adaptation of ^qMDF by metric developers would yield good quality metrics, while ensuring their construct validity, utility, reliability and reduced developmental effort.