:Author: Manuel Pichler :Copyright: All rights reserved :Description: This article describes the CIS - Class Interface Size metric in general. This metric was originally defined in the Quality Model of Object-Oriented Design by Bansiya & Davis. This metric is a good indicator for the chosen software design and how reusable components are implemented. :Keywords: CIS, Class Interface Size, QMOOD, Quality Metrics of Object-Oriented Design, Bansiya & Davis, reusability, functionality
The Class Interface Size or CIS metric is measure of the public services
that a class provides. This metric was originally defined in the QMOOD model
[#moodcis]_ by Bansiya & Davis.
The original version of the CIS metric was defined as the number of public methods that a class provides. Each of these methods can be seen as a service where surrounding application can send messages to or receive messages from a class.
CIS = public(NOM)
A newer variant of the CIS metric also includes the public attributes of a
class, because theses properties can also be used to transport messages or
information between a class and the surrounding application.
CIS = public(NOM) + public(VARS)
PHP_Depend uses the second variant and counts all public methods and attributes declared in a class to calculate its Class Interface Size metric.
This metric is a good indicator for the chosen software design. Several
classes with a high CIS value are a sure sign that the design of the
analyzed software prefers composition over inheritance to share common
functionality between different components. So in most cases a high value is
a good a sign, because composition increases the reusability and flexibility.
But there are also situations where wrongly used composition of functionality
leads to a design that is harder to understand and maintain.
It is not easy to define good thresholds for this metric, because those values heavy depend on the chosen design, e.g. inheritance or composition. But in general we can say that is best practice to limit the public interface that can be used to alter the internal state of an object. Therefore we suggest 20 as a reference point for the upper limit.
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering; Hierarchical Model for Object-Oriented Design Quality Assessment; Bansiya & Davis; 2002