How Does Software Visualization Contribute to Software Comprehension? A Grounded Theory Approach

Despite their ability to synthesize vast amounts of information, software visualization tools are not widely adopted in the software engineering industry. In an effort to investigate the underlying reasons, we conducted a usability study to investigate the affordances of software visualization techn...

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Published inInternational journal of human-computer interaction Vol. 29; no. 11; pp. 743 - 763
Main Authors Duru, Hacı Ali, Çakır, Murat Perit, İşler, Veysi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Norwood Taylor & Francis 02.11.2013
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
Subjects
Complex systems
Computer programs
Maintenance
Programmers
Programming
Quantitative analysis
Software
Software engineering
Statistical analysis
Strategy
Tasks
Visualization
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1044-7318
1532-7590
1044-7318
DOI10.1080/10447318.2013.773876

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Abstract Despite their ability to synthesize vast amounts of information, software visualization tools are not widely adopted in the software engineering industry. In an effort to investigate the underlying reasons, we conducted a usability study to investigate the affordances of software visualization techniques for the maintenance of complex software systems. Expert programmers were asked to carry out programming tasks with or without using a software visualization tool while their screens and eye gaze patterns were recorded. Statistical analysis of task performance data showed that participants who used the software visualization tool outperformed the control group in terms of task completion time and accuracy. However, quantitative analysis of performance measures did not reveal in what ways software visualizations contributed to this improvement. In an effort to identify the cognitive strategies that underlie this quantitative performance difference, process models grounded in qualitative analysis of eye-tracking data were constructed. The process models indicated that software visualizations guided the subjects in the experiment group toward following specific software comprehension strategies, which account for the difference observed in task performance data.
AbstractList Despite their ability to synthesize vast amounts of information, software visualization tools are not widely adopted in the software engineering industry. In an effort to investigate the underlying reasons, we conducted a usability study to investigate the affordances of software visualization techniques for the maintenance of complex software systems. Expert programmers were asked to carry out programming tasks with or without using a software visualization tool while their screens and eye gaze patterns were recorded. Statistical analysis of task performance data showed that participants who used the software visualization tool outperformed the control group in terms of task completion time and accuracy. However, quantitative analysis of performance measures did not reveal in what ways software visualizations contributed to this improvement. In an effort to identify the cognitive strategies that underlie this quantitative performance difference, process models grounded in qualitative analysis of eye-tracking data were constructed. The process models indicated that software visualizations guided the subjects in the experiment group toward following specific software comprehension strategies, which account for the difference observed in task performance data. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Despite their ability to synthesize vast amounts of information, software visualization tools are not widely adopted in the software engineering industry. In an effort to investigate the underlying reasons, we conducted a usability study to investigate the affordances of software visualization techniques for the maintenance of complex software systems. Expert programmers were asked to carry out programming tasks with or without using a software visualization tool while their screens and eye gaze patterns were recorded. Statistical analysis of task performance data showed that participants who used the software visualization tool outperformed the control group in terms of task completion time and accuracy. However, quantitative analysis of performance measures did not reveal in what ways software visualizations contributed to this improvement. In an effort to identify the cognitive strategies that underlie this quantitative performance difference, process models grounded in qualitative analysis of eye-tracking data were constructed. The process models indicated that software visualizations guided the subjects in the experiment group toward following specific software comprehension strategies, which account for the difference observed in task performance data.
Author Duru, Hacı Ali
İşler, Veysi
Çakır, Murat Perit
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SubjectTerms Complex systems
Computer programs
Maintenance
Programmers
Programming
Quantitative analysis
Software
Software engineering
Statistical analysis
Strategy
Tasks
Visualization
Title How Does Software Visualization Contribute to Software Comprehension? A Grounded Theory Approach
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