Empirical Analysis of Object-Oriented Design Metrics for Predicting Unit Testing Effort of Classes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate empirically the relationship between object-oriented design metrics and testability of classes. We address testability from the point of view of unit testing effort. We collected data from three open source Java software systems for which JUnit test cases exist. To capture the testing effort of classes, we used metrics to quantify the corresponding JUnit test cases. Classes were classified, according to the required unit testing effort, in two categories: high and low. In order to evaluate the relationship between object-oriented design metrics and unit testing effort of classes, we used logistic regression methods. We used the univariate logistic regression analysis to evaluate the individual effect of each metric on the unit testing effort of classes. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the combined effect of the metrics. The performance of the prediction models was evaluated using Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis. The results indicate that: 1) complexity, size, cohesion and (to some extent) coupling were found significant predictors of the unit testing effort of classes and 2) multivariate regression models based on object-oriented design metrics are able to accurately predict the unit testing effort of classes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.014 | 0.161 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".