The goal of the MERLIN Project is to determine an appropriate set of code metrics that can be used, along with our design metrics, to categorize modules for software rejuvenation initiatives. This research will establish a metrics-guided methodology based on historical data and software metrics that provides software engineers with a framework that is unbiased, efficient and cost-effective to determine appropriate code-modification and management strategies. A large-scale software system has been identified as the study data for this project. This research will also include an exploration of several traditional and non-traditional data evaluation methods.
Our approach integrates a design view, a code view, and an "extrinsic" view of a system. The metrics model developed can be customized and calibrated for each site. The output of our design metrics analyzers is available to serve as initial input to the metrics model.
This research extends our previous work in design metrics analysis by taking a proven design metrics technology and adapting that technology to address a different focus area of software development. This project will be important to personnel as they analyze metric patterns in legacy systems, review the structural attributes of reuse code, conduct metrics- based risk analyses of legacy software, and review the current state of software being rehosted to new architectures. This project will serve developers by providing a metrics foundation for objective decision making during software rejuvenation efforts.