Control-flow Complexity Measurement of Processes and Weyuker's Properties

Process measurement is the task of empirically and objectively assigning numbers to the properties of business processes in such a way as to describe them. Desirable attributes to study and measure include complexity, cost, maintainability, and reliability. In our work we will focus on investigating process complexity. We define process complexity as the degree to which a business process is difficult to analyze, understand or explain. One way to analyze a process- complexity is to use a process control-flow complexity measure. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the control-flow complexity measure in terms of Weyuker-s properties. Weyuker-s properties must be satisfied by any complexity measure to qualify as a good and comprehensive one.


Authors:



References:
[1] Cardoso, J., Evaluating Workflows and Web Process Complexity, in
Workflow Handbook 2005, L. Fischer, Editor. 2005, Future Strategies
Inc.: Lighthouse Point, FL, USA. p. 284-290.
[2] Weyuker, E.J., Evaluating software complexity measures. IEEE
Transactions on Software Eng., 1988. 14(9): p. 1357-1365.
[3] Cardoso, J. About the Data-Flow Complexity of Web Processes. in 6th
International Workshop on Business Process Modeling, Development,
and Support: Business Processes and Support Systems: Design for
Flexibility. 2005. Porto, Portugal.
[4] McCabe, T., A Complexity Measure. IEEE Transactions of Software
Engineering, 1976. SE-2(4): p. 308-320.
[5] Kitchenham, B., S.L. Pfleeger, and N. Fenton, Toward a Framework for
Measurement Validation. IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering,,
1996. 21(12): p. 929-944.
[6] Fenton, N., Software Measurement: A Necessary Scientific Basis. IEEE
Transactions on Software Engineering, 1994. 20(3).
[7] Morasca, S., et al., Comments on "Towards a Framework for Software
Measurement Validation". IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
1997. 23(3): p. 187-188.
[8] Zuse, H., A Framework of Software Measurement. 1997, Berlin: Walter
de Gruyter Inc.
[9] Aalst, W.M.P.v.d., The Application of Petri Nets to Workflow
Management. The Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers, 1998.
8(1): p. 21-66.
[10] Halstead, M.H., Elements of Software Science, Operating, and
Programming Systems Series. Vol. 7. 1977, New York, NY: Elsevier.
[11] Boehm, B., Software Engineering Economics. 1981: Prentice Hall.
[12] Misra, S. and A.K. Misra. Evaluating Cognitive Complexity Measure
with Weyuker Properties. in Third IEEE International Conference on
Cognitive Informatics (ICCI'04). 2004. Victoria, Canada.
[13] Lakshmanan, K.B., S. Jayaprakash, and P.K. Sinha, Properties of
Control-Flow Complexity Measures. IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering archive, 1991. 17(12): p. 1289 - 1295.