Tool Support for a Method to Evaluate Internal Software Product Quality by Static Code Analysis

There are many standards for assessing the quality of software products. The ISO 9126 standard distinguishes internal and external quality, and quality in use. Based on the ISO 14598 standard, which is closely related to ISO 9126, the authors developed the evaluation method for internal software quality (EMISQ) for the expert-centered assessment of internal software quality. EMISQ provides a methodological framework for this expert-centered assessment that is supported by metric values and other findings provided by off-the-shelf static code analysis tools. To perform timely and efficient code-quality assessments, it is necessary to have tool support tailored to the needs of the evaluators. For that purpose the authors developed the software product quality reporter (SPQR), an Eclipse-based tool that supports the EMISQ method. The application of SPQR has already proved its usefulness in the execution of EMISQ projects.