The VI Metrics window, available in the LabVIEW Professional Development System, provides a way to measure the complexity of an application similar to the widely used source lines of code (SLOC) metrics for text-based programming languages. With the VI Metrics window you can view metrics about VIs, which can be useful in finding areas of a VI that are too complex. You also can use those metrics to establish baselines for estimating future projects.
Remember that any metric, including SLOC, is a crude measurement of complexity. The VI Metrics window gives you access to many metrics because you might find that some are more valuable than others in certain cases. For example, you might decide that for user interface VIs you can combine certain metrics to get a better idea of the complexity of a VI. In that case, you can make your own metric by saving the information about a VI and writing VIs to parse the results, combining fields to produce a new measurement of the complexity of a VI.
National Instruments is interested in hearing about combined or alternative metrics you find useful in analyzing VIs. Visit the National Instruments Web site to submit suggestions.