Understandability measurement in an early usability evaluation for model-driven development: an empirical study

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, usability has been evaluated taking into account the user's satisfaction when interacting with the software system. However, in a Model-Driven Development (MDD) process, where conceptual models are the main resource for software system generation, the usability can potentially be evaluated at earlier stages. This work goes one step further proposing that certain usability attributes, specifically internal understandability attributes, can be measured from Conceptual Models. This work presents an empirical study carried out to evaluate the proposal. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether the value measured using our proposal is related to the understandability value perceived by the end user. From the analysis of the empirical results obtained, several weaknesses of the proposal are stated.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.4 Software/Program Verification
          Subjects: Validation
      D.2.8 Metrics
          Subjects: Process metrics

General Terms:
Experimentation, Measurement, Verification

Keywords:
automatic code generation, conceptual modeling, empirical evaluation, indicators, metrics, understandability, usability