Short Paper: Engineering Realtime Interactive Systems: Coupling and Cohesion of Architecture Mechanisms

Abstract

This paper reviews coupling and cohesion as software quality criteria for the development of Realtime Interactive Systems (RIS). The applicability of these criteria to evaluate RIS architecture mechanisms is examined while the utilization of existing software metrics is discussed. Three commonly found mechanisms, scene graphs, event systems and entity models, are evaluated with respect to a minimization of coupling and a maximization of cohesion. The paper motivates an analytical approach to the evaluation of software techniques as well as a strengthening of software technology aspects in the field of interactive simulations in general given current challenges of diversification, parallelization, and interconnection.