Five-Paper Series Formalizes Software Cohesion and Independent Variation Principle

A five-paper academic series has been published in full on Zenodo, tracing a theoretical chain from the concept of software cohesion to the Independent Variation Principle (IVP). The first paper defines cohesion formally as a 2k-tuple of purity-completeness pairs and argues that existing algorithmic cohesion metrics measure structural proxies rather than true cohesion. Subsequent papers introduce a causal cohesion metric, prove four necessary conditions for optimal modularization, and demonstrate that minimizing change propagation is equivalent to minimizing total maintenance cost. The final paper synthesizes the entire chain into the IVP, examining its premises, preconditions, and scope. The series reaches the same endpoint as a separate June 2026 graph-theoretic proof, though through a distinct theoretical route, with all papers freely accessible via Zenodo.