Package Level Stability Measurement for Object-Oriented Systems

Object-oriented packages are used to divide software into logical components by grouping classes. During maintenance phase software evolves in order to accommodate changes in requirements. Package level stability helps in identification of logical components which are most vulnerable to changes. By applying refactoring, the stability of packages can be increased which will eventually reduce efforts. In this study we will investigate why calculation of package level stability is important and what extra benefits it can offer over function, class and architecture level stability. The outcomes of this research is a new metrics suite for package level stability for both inter and intra package changes; this will help in achieving more stable architecture thus improve the quality of the software and reduce its maintenance cost.