IfSQ

Choice of names impacts cost of debugging

Research Finding:
The effort required to debug a program is minimized when variables had names averaging 10 to 16 characters long.

IfSQ Defect Indicators based on this finding:

• SP-5—Poor Choice of Name
  A name used in a program is too short, too long, too cryptic, too similar to another name or inconsistent with other names.

Source:

Debugging Effort Estimation using Software Metrics

• N. Gorla, A.C. Benander, and B.A. Benander
• Recorded 1990 in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE-16, no. 2, February
• Pages 233-31