Empirical study on the maintainability of Web applications: Model-driven Engineering vs Code-centric

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Model-driven Engineering (MDE) approaches are often acknowledged to improve the maintainability of the resulting applications. However, there is a scarcity of empirical evidence that backs their claimed benefits and limitations with respect to code-centric approaches. OBJECTIVE: To compare the performance and satisfaction of junior software maintainers while executing maintainability tasks on Web applications with two di↵erent development approaches, one being OOH4RIA, a model-driven approach, and the other being a code-centric approach based on Visual Studio .NET and the Agile Unified Process. METHOD: We have conducted a quasi-experiment with 27 graduated students from the University of Alicante. They were aleatory divided into two groups, and each group was assigned to a di↵erent Web application on which they performed a set of maintainability tasks. RESULTS: Maintaining Web applications with OOH4RIA clearly improves the performance of subjects. It also tips the satisfaction balance in favor of OOH4RIA, although not significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Model-driven development methods seem to improve both the developers' objective performance and subjective opinions on ease of use and utility of the method. Further experimentation is needed to be able to generalize the results to di↵erent populations, methods, languages and tools, di↵erent domains and di↵erent application sizes.

Comparison of a textual versus a graphical notation for the maintainability of MDE domain models: an empirical pilot study

“…Also, in the last years we have witnesses an increasing number of papers that tackle the impact of using models vs. not using them on aspects such as productivity and maintainaibility of the applications (see e.g. [37,6,22]). …”

“…In previous works, it has been empirically proven how the use of models in the context of a model-driven approach has a positive impact on efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance tasks [22], and also on developer's satisfaction [23]. In these experiments, results of performing the maintainability tasks using models were compared with the results of performing the same tasks directly on code.…”

Assessing the impact of Volatile Functionality removal in web applications: Model‐Driven vs Code‐Based approaches

“…Model‐Driven Engineering aims at providing methods and tools for designing web Applications, where developers abstract from source code aspects and focus on functional requirements instead. In a previous study, authors studied how maintenance tasks, in both OOHRIA approach and code centric approach, were perceived by practitioners. The experiment was performed by 26 students, and their perception was captured through questionnaires.…”

“…We use these metric as Groovy application is based on an Object‐Oriented Paradigm. Different empirical research works compare Code‐Based and Model‐Driven approaches for either developing applications from scratch or maintaining applications. However, they focus on developers' perception of the experience.…”

gestUI: a model-driven method for including gesture-based interaction in user interfaces

“…Results show that the use of Model-driven Engineering practices significantly increase both productivity and satisfaction of junior Web developers, regardless of the particular application. Other work reported by these authors [110] is about an empirical study on the maintainability of the Web applications. In this work, they compare Model-driven Engineering with Code-centric method by using OOH4RIA and Visual Studio .NET respectively.…”