Identifying and quantifying architectural debt and decoupling level: a metric for architectural maintenance complexity
US11422800B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 19, 2016 |
| Grant date | Aug 23, 2022 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 19, 2036 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q10/06395
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Groups of architecturally connected files may incur and accumulate high maintenance costs as architectural debts. To quantify such debts, architectural debt, which is a term used herein, may be identified, quantified, measured, and modeled. A history coupling probability matrix for this purpose may search for architecture debts through the lens of 4 patterns of prototypical architectural flaws shown to correlate with reduced software quality. Further, a new architecture maintainability metric—Decoupling Level (DL)—measures how well the software can be decoupled into small and independently replaceable modules. The DL metric opens the possibility of quantitatively comparing maintainability between different projects, as well as monitoring architecture decay throughout software evolution. Decoupling Level may be the only software maintainability metric that bears similarity with other metrics used in everyday life, such as the centimeter, in that it allows managers to monitor, evaluate, and compare software projects and their evolution.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.