Usability Assessment of a UML-based Formal Modelling Method
P. W. Garratt · ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) · 2007
Conceptual models of Software Systems provide the material support for documenting and communicating the relevant aspects of the problem domain to stakeholders and system designers. To convey the information effectively, the models should be accessible to users who need to interpret them. The effectiveness of the produced model on the other hand is highly dependent on the modelling language and method. A usable method enables the production of a high quality model. This is beneficial to all stakeholders and stimulates the developers in matching their cognitive processes and exploiting the development environment. This paper presents a series of usability assessments conducted on a method that integrates the use of semi-formal notation, namely the Unified Modelling Language (UML) and a formal notation, namely B. The assessments included a controlled experiment that evaluated the comprehensibility of the produced model and a survey that assessed the modelling process. The experiment identified the notations used in the models as its independent variable. The analysis of the variable in relation to overall comprehension task and comprehension for modification task yielded significant results. The results suggest that the method is able to produce a comprehensible model and is accessible to developers under certain conditions.