Software Maintainability Assessment Using Object-Oriented Design Metrics

Abstract

Software maintainability assessment is important for evaluating how easily object-oriented systems can be modified, extended, tested, and corrected over time. Object-oriented design metrics such as coupling, cohesion, inheritance depth, class size, method complexity, and response set provide measurable indicators of structural quality in software modules. Traditional maintainability evaluation often depends on expert review or post-release defect observation, but these approaches may not detect early design-level weaknesses. This article focuses on assessing software maintainability using object-oriented design metrics to identify classes and modules with high modification risk. The study discusses how metric values can be collected, normalized, compared against threshold limits, and combined into a maintainability score. The article concludes that metric-based maintainability assessment can help developers detect design degradation, prioritize refactoring, reduce maintenance effort, and improve long-term software quality.