Let’s Do Some Engineering Pt. 2: Software Metrics

Conclusion & Resources

Ahh, the burning question…

What Tools Should I Use?

So we talked a great deal about when and where to apply metrics, but I didn’t say anything about how to apply them. Your mileage may vary here, but there are a few tools to consider. The best ones tend to cost (a lot of) money, but here they are:

Non-Free Metrics Tools

• McCabe IQ – great tool, pretty expensive, but has some impressive metrics. Handles Java, C, C++, Perl, C#, VB, and a boat-load of older static languages.
• NDepend – Windows-only, and seems to be .NET specific. Integrated with VS.NET, but also seems to have an open source / academic license, so if you do C#/VB, this might be a good choice.
• Logiscope – Part of IBM’s Rational products. I’ve used it once before at my university and I know it supports Java, but I have no clue what else.

Free Metrics Tools

• Eclipse Metrics – Eclipse has a metrics plugin that does most of the calculations I described in the article. It likely only supports Java, though.
• Another Eclipse Metrics Plugin – Here’s another one, this one seems to be more up to date. I haven’t tried either so I can’t recommend them, and again this probably only supports Java.
• C Metrics – A list of C/C++ metrics tools. Note: most of these are extremely basic, but some of the ones at the end might be helpful.

Finally, here’s a list of metrics tools, not compiled by me, of both free and non-free metrics software. It’s a lot more extensive.

Hopefully that gives a tidy overview of some interesting metrics and perhaps gives you some ideas on how these numbers can be used in your projects. If you want some more information on metrics or are not thoroughly convinced by this post, there’s a great book titled Applying Software Metrics that you should check out.