Software specifications metrics: a quantitative approach to assess the quality of documents

Following the development of system requirements, the software specifications document consists of a definition of the software product. Each of the following phases of design, coding, and integration/testing transforms the initial software specifications into lower levels of machine implementable details until the final machine processable object code is generated. Therefore, the completeness, readability and accuracy of the software specification directly influences the quality of the final software product. A waterfall development model is not assumed. It is assumed however, that software specifications are kept "alive" and relevant. The purpose of the article is to provide a methodology for deriving quantitative measures of the quality of the software specifications document. These measures are designed to complement good engineering judgment that has to be applied in order to judge the quality of a software specifications document. Quantitative measures (i.e., metrics) will help reveal problem areas in various dimensions of quality characteristics. We focus on completeness, readability and accuracy. The methodology is presented with real life examples.