Enhancing software development process quality based on metrics correlation and suggestion

To improve software quality, it is necessary to introduce new metrics with the required detail and increased expressive power, in order to provide valuable information to the different actors of software development. In this paper we present two approaches based on metrics that contribute to improve software quality development. Both approaches are complementary and are focused on the combination, reuse and correlation of metrics. They suggest to the user indications of how to reuse metrics and provide recommendations after the application of metrics correlation. They have been applied to selected metrics on software maintainability, safety, security etc. The approaches have been implemented in two tools, Metrics Suggester and MINT. Both approaches and tools are part of the ITEA3 MEASURE project and they have been integrated into the project platform. To illustrate its application we have created different scenarios on which both approaches are applied. Results show that both approaches are complementary and can be used to improve the software process.