As the content and variety of technology increases in automobiles, the complexity of the system increases as well. Decomposing systems into modules is one of the ways to manage and reduce system complexity. This paper surveys and compares a number of state-of-art components modularity metrics, using 8 sample test systems. The metrics include Whitney Index (WI), Change Cost (CC), Singular value Modularity Index (SMI), Visibility-Dependency (VD) plot, and social network centrality measures (degree, distance, bridging). The investigation reveals that WI and CC form a good pair of metrics that can be used to assess component modularity of a system. The social network centrality metrics are useful in identifying areas of architecture improvements for a system. These metrics were further applied to two actual vehicle embedded software systems. The first system is going through an architecture transformation. The metrics from the old system revealed the need for the improvements. The second system was recently architected, and the metrics values showed the quality of the architecture as well as areas for further improvements.
Investing in a good pair of wellies: how do non-experts interpret the expert terminology of climate change impacts and adaptation?
