%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Systems and Software %D 1992 %T A formal program complexity model and its application %A Tian,Jianhui %A Zelkowitz, Marvin V %X This article takes an axiomatic approach to defining program complexity using complexity rankings and measures. A complexity ranking is an abstract, qualitative comparison between programs that is approximated by a complexity measure on each program. A set of axioms are stated and a classification scheme is presented with properties of each class. This is extended a series of properties developed by Weyuker. The formal model has many applications, including evaluating and classifying existing complexity measures and serving as criteria for complexity measure selection. %B Journal of Systems and Software %V 17 %P 253 - 266 %8 1992/03// %@ 0164-1212 %G eng %U http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016412129290114Y %N 3 %R 10.1016/0164-1212(92)90114-Y