An experimental comparison of object-orientation and functional-decomposition as paradigms for communicating system functionality to users

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 163 - 169
• Main Author: Moynihan, Tony
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.05.1996; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control theory. Systems; Decomposition; Exact sciences and technology; Functions; Modelling and identification; Object oriented programming; Studies; System theory; Systems development; System design; Communicating process; System analysis; Modeling; Object oriented
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/0164-1212(95)00185-9

This article describes an experiment to evaluate the relative effectiveness of functional-decomposition and object-orientation as paradigms for client/developer communication in the early stages of the system development process. The subjects were 20 executives attending a management development program. The experimental task required the subjects to comment critically on the content and format of two analyses of equivalent content. The first analysis took the form of a functional-decomposition. The second analysis took the form of an object-model. The results suggest that functional-decomposition is the more effective of the two paradigms as a vehicle for early client/developer communication. Also, the subjects judged the functional-decomposition to be superior to the object-model on a number of important attributes.