Analyzing the Structural Complexity of Software Systems Using Complex Network Theory

Abstract Software systems have nearly been used in all walks of life, playing an increasingly important role. Thus, how to understand and measure complex software systems has become an ever-important step to ensure a high-quality software system. The traditional analysis of software system structure focuses on a single module. However, the traditional software structural metrics mainly focus on analyzing the local structure of software systems and fail to characterize the properties of software as a whole. Complex network theory provides us with a new way to understand the internal structure of software systems, and many researchers have introduced the theory of complex networks into the examination of software systems by building software networks from the source code of software systems. In this paper, we combine software structure analysis and complex network theory together and propose a SCANT (Software Complexity Analysis using complex Network Theory) approach to probe the internal complexity of software systems.