A CONCEPTUAL-MODEL OF COGNITIVE-COMPLEXITY OF ELEMENTS OF THE PROGRAMMING PROCESS

A new approach to complexity metrics is described based not on empiric al analysis of the final product, viz, the code, but on an understandi ng of the cognitive processes of the analyst or programmer as they app roach and undertake the challenges of program development, modificatio n and debugging, The resulting metric, the Cognitive Complexity Model, involves quantification of a number of cognitive processes, focused o n descriptions of comprehension resulting from the twin processes of ' chunking' and 'tracing' used by software developers in an attempt to r each a cognition of a software system at the code level, A conceptual framework is given as well as some illustrative indicators of likely c omponent measures together with areas needing further research.