grantor:
University of TorontoThis thesis proposes a general framework for evaluating and improving the quality of a software system. To illustrate how the methodology works, the thesis focuses on the software qualities of maintainability and performance. The Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) framework is adopted to represent and analyse the software qualities of maintainability and performance. Specifically, it analyses the software attributes that affect either quality, the heuristics that can be implemented in source code to achieve either quality, and how the two qualities conflict with each other. Experimental results are discussed to determine the effect of various heuristics on maintainability and performance. A methodology is described for selecting the heuristics that will improve a system's software quality the most.M.Sc
