The use of cluster techniques and system design metrics in software maintenance

Software metrics are an attempt to quantify features of a software product which can be used for activities such as prediction and standards setting. The paper describes a novel use of such software metrics in which they are used to monitor the degree of structural degradation that occurs during the software maintenance process. The technique that is described relies on a branch of statistics known as cluster analysis and also employs algorithms borrowed from the field of classification.<
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