Metrics for the protection of template methods in object-oriented architectures

: Currently there are a large number of metrics to measure the quality of software architectural design, however, there are still missing metrics that are not defined in the literature, such as metrics to measure the protection of methods associated with the "Template Method" design pattern. In this work, a research applied to technological development was carried out based on the theory of measurement as a means of validation and combination of empirical conditions with formal conditions. The main result of the research was a set of four metrics that allow to evaluate the internal quality of software architectures in order to facilitate their maintenance and useful life time, as well as their reuse. Three of them measure the degree of modular protection in template methods (PMMP), variant functions (PMFV) and invariant functions (PMFI). The fourth one measures the degree of total protection that the Template Method design pattern has in a software architecture (PTTM). Finally, the metrics were implemented in a system to automate the calculation applied to three test cases where the validation was given by comparing the expected results with the obtained values. Keywords: Template Method, functional protection, variant functions, invariant functions, indirect coupling.