It is not uncommon in software engineering measurement to deal with attributes measured with nominal or ordinal scales. Also, it has long been debated whether it is possible to find ordinal scales for the structural complexity of software code. In this paper, we address two problems: (1) the definition of concentration and dispersion indices for nominal scales; (2) the conditions under which the comparisons of arithmetic means or geometric means are meaningful for scales that are ordinal or not even ordinal.

On the Definition and Use of Aggregate Indices for Nominal, Ordinal, and Other Scales

MORASCA, SANDRO
2004-01-01

Abstract

It is not uncommon in software engineering measurement to deal with attributes measured with nominal or ordinal scales. Also, it has long been debated whether it is possible to find ordinal scales for the structural complexity of software code. In this paper, we address two problems: (1) the definition of concentration and dispersion indices for nominal scales; (2) the conditions under which the comparisons of arithmetic means or geometric means are meaningful for scales that are ordinal or not even ordinal.
2004
Linda Ott, Martin Shepperd, Audris Mockus
Tenth International Symposium on Software Metrics (METRICS 2004)
9780769521299
METRICS 2004
Chicago (USA)
14-16 settembre 2004
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11383/1492242
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