Use Case Evaluation (UCE): A Method for Early Usability Evaluation in Software Development

Hornbæk, Kasper; Høegh, Rune Thaarup; Pedersen, Michael; Stage, Jan

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74796-3_58

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Use case-driven requirements verification: use case metrics are most commonly used in literature to assess the quality of requirements. These measures are typically used to quantity the size and complexity of the requirements specification and use them as predictors of external quality attributes such as effort [68], defect-proneness [20], usability [69], and requirements importance [70] and so on. The extended use case metamodel not only provides a structure to define simple metrics such as number of actors and number of use cases (that can be also be done using the UML metamodel), but also complex metrics such as number of actor actions steps in a use case, number of system action steps in a use case, and so on.…”

Section: Use Case Driven Requirement Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Extending the UML use case metamodel with behavioral information to facilitate model analysis and interchange

Misbhauddin

Alshayeb

2013

Softw Syst Model

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Use case diagrams are primary artifacts used for modeling functional requirements. Use case diagrams are part of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) suite of models that has become a de facto standard for modeling object oriented languages. Each model in this suite is described by a metamodel that dictates its syntax and semantics. The use case diagram is considered the most controversial diagram in UML. Practitioners claim that the use case diagram cannot be used as a valuable artifact for requirement analysis. The main reason behind this concern is the lack of behavioral description of a use case depicted within the model. Quite a few extensions to the use case metamodel have been proposed in literature to incorporate behavioral aspect of a use case within the metamodel. All these extensions omit a few important features like generalization and most of them can only be used for model representation and cannot be used for model analysis and evaluation. In this paper, we propose an extension to the UML use case metamodel with use case behavior specification elements. The main objective of the proposed extension is to provide a complete metamodel for use case diagrams which includes representation for all its elements and relationships in a conflict-free manner and one that includes information for model analysis, evaluation, and interchange among modeling tools. In order to include all valuable information related to a use case, a number of use Communicated by Dr. case representation templates were considered for the proposed extension. Simultaneously, to enable the use case models generated based on the proposed metamodel to be used for analysis, pertinent information related to model usage in analysis such as effort estimation, use case scheduling, and use case metrics evaluation were considered from published studies, tools, and paradigms and included within the proposed metamodel.

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Section: Use Case Driven Requirement Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Extending the UML use case metamodel with behavioral information to facilitate model analysis and interchange

Misbhauddin

Alshayeb

2013

Softw Syst Model

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“…Hornbaek et al [3] propose the UCE method (Use Case Evaluation) for the usability evaluation based on use cases that employs Nielsen's [11] heuristics as a basis. This method consists of three activities: (1) Inspection of Use Cases, that seeks to identify usability problems that the evaluator is convinced one or more prospective users will experience, (2) Assessment of Use Cases, that seeks to assess the quality of the use cases, and (3) Documentation of Evaluation, where the results are compiled into a coherent evaluation product.…”

Section: Early Usabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Including usability allows benefits such as improving user productivity and reducing training and documentation costs [2]. Therefore, a large number of researchers have investigated ways to include usability in software development [3], [4]. Donahue [5] says that investments in usability have allowed benefits such as income increase.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do software engineers apply an early usability inspection technique? A qualitative study

Valentim

Conte

Estácio

et al. 2015

International Conferences on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering

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-Usability inspections can be employed in early phases of the software development process. They improve usability through artifacts that are built during the development of the software. These artifacts will influence the usability of the developed software. Usability inspection techniques have been proposed and considered as an effective alternative for addressing usability issues in early phases. However, these techniques are often avoided by software engineers due to their lack of experience and knowledge in the field. Therefore, there is an opportunity to investigate how industry practitioners have employed an early usability inspection technique in practice. This paper describes an observational study in the industry aimed at eliciting the process used by software engineers when applying an early usability inspection technique. We analyzed the qualitative data, discussing their impact in the improvement of the technique. The results indicated which steps the software engineers adopted in the technique's application.

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“…Este tipo de método pode não ser eficaz em termos de custos, uma vez que requer uma grande quantidade de recursos [8], como dispositivos e equipamentos. Além disso, precisam de uma implementação total ou parcial da aplicação, o que significa que as avaliações de usabilidade são realizadas geralmente nos últimos estágios do processo de desenvolvimento [10].…”

Section: Avaliações De Usabilidadeunclassified

Improving a Usability Inspection Technique Based on Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

Valentim¹,

Conte

2014

2014 Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

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Usability is one of the most important factors that determine the quality of software product. Many usability inspection methods are gaining popularity as an effective alternative for addressing usability issues. However, usability evaluations are often avoided by developers and software companies due to their lack of knowledge and experience in the field. Usability evaluation can be expensive in terms of time and human resources; and sometimes companies' projects do not have budget to hire an expert inspector. Additionally, most of the evaluation methods can only be applied late in development, increasing correction costs. Aiming at solving this problem, we proposed a set of inspection techniques called MIT -Model Inspection Techniques for Usability Evaluation. This paper focuses on one of these techniques: the MIT2 technique that supports the inspection of mockups by software engineers. The goal of this paper is to present the evaluation and the evolution of MIT 2 (version 2), through the results of an empirical study. We discuss the quantitative and qualitative results of the result and their impact on improving the MIT2 technique. We analyzed the qualitative data using the procedures from the Grounded Theory (GT) method. Results indicated that our technique assists nonexpert inspectors uncovering usability problems effectively; the MIT 2 (v2) was considered easy to use and useful by the participants of the study. Finally, the qualitative analysis points out relevant improvement opportunities. Keywords-usability evaluation; usability inspection; mockup; empirical studies. I. INTRODUÇÃOUm dos atributos de qualidade mais importante para a aceitabilidade do software é a usabilidade [15]. Segundo a norma ISO/IEC 25010 [11], esta é definida como a "capacidade que o software tem de ser entendido, usado e aprendido, e também sua capacidade de agradar ao usuário, quando utilizado sob condições específicas".Alguns métodos de avaliação têm sido propostos para auxiliar na detecção de defeitos de usabilidade, porém muitas empresas de software não os têm utilizado [8]. Devido à falta de conhecimento sobre os métodos, várias empresas dependem de especialistas para realizar avaliações de usabilidade [8]. E a contratação destes especialistas aumenta os custos do projeto de desenvolvimento. Além disso, a maior parte dos métodos de avaliação só pode ser aplicada mais tarde no processo de desenvolvimento, aumentando os custos de correção [8]. Diante deste contexto, torna-se importante propor técnicas que possam ser aplicadas pelos próprios engenheiros de software (não especialistas em usabilidade) para avaliar a usabilidade de artefatos nas fases iniciais dos projetos de desenvolvimento. Os benefícios de utilizar este tipo de técnica são: (i) apoiar os desenvolvedores a aprender sobre usabilidade e projeto de interação e (ii) diminuir os custos de avaliação de usabilidade.Um dos artefatos construídos durante as fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento é o mockup. Segundo Luna et al.[13], mockups são artefatos usados para re...

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Use Case Evaluation (UCE): A Method for Early Usability Evaluation in Software Development

Cited by 9 publications

References 27 publications

Extending the UML use case metamodel with behavioral information to facilitate model analysis and interchange

Extending the UML use case metamodel with behavioral information to facilitate model analysis and interchange

How do software engineers apply an early usability inspection technique? A qualitative study

Improving a Usability Inspection Technique Based on Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

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