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Setting Up a Maintainability Metrics Program

publish date: 2026/06/24 21:32:32.558415 UTC

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A project manager at a software company wants to set up a program to analyze the maintenance process and determine appropriate maintainability metrics. Which of the following would be reasonable first steps? Select all that apply.

Correct Answer

(1) Collect data on the number of change requests, time for impact analysis, and time to implement changes across existing systems
(2) Identify which system components are most frequently the target of change requests
(3) Establish a baseline of current maintenance costs before introducing any new metrics
(4) Survey developers about which parts of the system they find hardest to understand or change

Explanation

A reasonable program to determine maintainability metrics would collect process data such as change request counts, impact analysis time, and implementation time; identify frequently-changed components; establish cost baselines for comparison; and gather qualitative input from developers about difficult-to-maintain areas. Discarding historical records would remove valuable data needed for this analysis.

Reference

Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 10th edition

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