Defining Software Quality Measures: A Systematic Approach Embedded in the Objectives, Principles, Attributes Framework

Currently, software quality measures and metrics are being developed in isolation and often without the benefit of a guiding framework. In this paper we describe a systematic process for identifying measurement approaches and defining corresponding metrics that definitively support software quality assessment. That systematic process embodies five well-defined steps that reflect quality assessment within a framework which links the achievement of desirable software engineering objectives to the use of appropriate principles, and the use of principles to the manifestation of desirable product attributes. Ada is the language we have chosen to examine; the Ada package is used to illustrate the identification and definition process.