Hierarchical Complexity: Measures of High Level Modularity

TL;DR

This paper introduces hierarchical complexity metrics to measure high-level modularity in large software systems, applying them to major open-source projects to evaluate their organizational structure.

Contribution

It proposes a novel hierarchical approach for measuring software complexity at higher organizational levels, beyond low-level code metrics.

Findings

Metrics effectively capture high-level modularity

Applied to large software packages with over 25 million lines of code

Demonstrates potential for assessing software organization

Abstract

Software is among the most complex endeavors of the human mind; large scale systems can have tens of millions of lines of source code. However, seldom is complexity measured above the lowest level of code, and sometimes source code files or low level modules. In this paper a hierarchical approach is explored in order to find a set of metrics that can measure higher levels of organization. These metrics are then used on a few popular free software packages (totaling more than 25 million lines of code) to check their efficiency and coherency.