Using commit-based diff analysis to measure the impact of scoped code changes

March 31, 2012

Measure change in cyclomatic complexity by analysing diffs

• Every decision (e.g. an if block) removed is -1
• Every decision added is + 1
• Becomes meaningful when related to story points completed, or a similar measure
• Measures only code that has changed - i.e. the effect that WE are having as a team
• Need to tag commits or something like that, so our measurement tool knows what it should be measuring
• More relevant measurement than a whole-codebase metric, esp. when other teams work on the same codebase
• Faster to measure than a whole-codebase metric, esp. with large codebases