Do internal software quality tools measure validated metrics?
This addresses a gap in software engineering by assessing the reliability of tools used for maintainability, though it is incremental as it builds on prior validation reports.
The study investigated whether internal software quality metrics offered by static analysis tools are validated in scientific literature, finding that many metrics lack validation and only a small percentage are supported by research.
Internal software quality determines the maintainability of the software product and influences the quality in use. There is a plethora of metrics which purport to measure the internal quality of software, and these metrics are offered by static software analysis tools. To date, a number of reports have assessed the validity of these metrics. No data are available, however, on whether metrics offered by the tools are somehow validated in scientific studies. The current study covers this gap by providing data on which tools and how many validated metrics are provided. The results show that a range of metrics that the tools provided do not seem to be validated in the literature and that only a small percentage of metrics are validated in the provided tools.