The Effects of the Symbology and Spatial Arrangement of Software Documentation in a Modification Task.
Abstract
This report describes the fourth in a series of experiments to evaluate the effects of the format of software documentation on programmer performance. The current experiment examined performance on a modification task. Thirty-six professional programmers were presented with documentation for each of three modular-sized programs. Nine different documentation formats were prepared for each program. These formats varied along two dimensions: type of symbology and spatial arrangement. The type of symbology included normal English, abbreviated English and program design language (PDL). The spatial arrangement included sequential (vertical flow), branching (flowchart), and hierarchical (tree-like). The participants were required to implement a modification to each program. These modifications required a minimum of three to five lines of additional code which the participants inserted using a text editor. The program output was checked automatically and a message informed the participants whether the output was correct or incorrect. The participants were asked to continue working until the modification was completed successfully. The difficulty of the task was measured by the time required to successfully complete the modification and by the number of errors which appeared in the first submission of the modified program. Unlike the previous experiments in this series, the type of symbology did not have a strong effect on performance time. However, the results reflected the trend that appeared in the previous experiments: the more succinct the symbology, the better the performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA109833
Entities
People
- Elizabeth Kruesi
- John W. Bailey
- Sylvia B. Sheppard
Organizations
- General Electric