Better Walkthroughs and Code Inspections. The effectiveness of walkthroughs, code inspections and similar techniques to identify programming and design errors early in the software lifecycle is well known. However, the process of reading code is time-consuming. So much so, that participants in a scheduled walkthrough or inspection often only have a chance to read a small portion of the code being discussed. It goes without saying that the process will be more effective if the code that is read is the most complex and therefore the most error-prone.
Reviewers can then concentrate their available time on software which is overly complex.
For instance, all functions or procedures which exceed a certain complexity threshold for one or more metrics can be identified. Special attention can then be given to these functions and procedures during walkthroughs and code inspections. Many installations also have adopted metric thresholds which are checked as part of the code inspection process. This ensures that overly complex code will not find its way into the subsequent testing and maintenance phases. More Effective and Efficient Testing.