Canonical modeling of software complexity and fault correction activity

The study applies canonical correlation analysis to investigate the relationship between source code complexity and fault correction activity. Product and process measures collected during the development of a commercial real-time product provide the data for this analysis. Sets of variables represent source code complexity and fault correction activity. Significant canonical correlations along two dimensions support the hypothesis that source code complexity exerted a causal influence on fault correction activity during the system test phase of the real-time product. Interpretation of the two significant canonical correlations reveals relationships between the sets of variables that are not immediately apparent from their simple correlations.< >