The effect of the number of concepts on the readab

Authors: Akhilesh Bajaj

Publish Date: 2004/10/08

Volume: 9, Issue: 4, Pages: 261-270

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Abstract

The number of concepts in a model has been frequently used in the literature to measure the ease of use in creating model schemas However to the best of our knowledge nobody has looked at its effect on the readability of the model schemas after they have been created The readability of a model schema is important in situations where the schemas are created by one team of analysts and read by other analysts system developers or maintenance administrators Given the recent trend of models with increasing numbers of concepts such as the unified modeling language UML the effect of the number of concepts NOC on the readability of schemas has become increasingly important In this work we operationalize readability along three dimensions effectiveness efficiency and learnability We draw on the Bunge Wand Weber BWW framework as well as the signal detection recognition theory and the ACT theory from cognitive psychology to formulate hypotheses and conduct an experiment to study the effects of the NOC in a data model on these readability dimensions Our work makes the following contributions a it extends the operationalization of the readability construct and b unlike earlier empirical work that has focused exclusively on comparing models that differ along several dimensions this work proposes an empirical methodology that isolates the effect of a modelindependent variable the NOC on readability From a practical perspective our findings have implications both for creators of new models as well as for practitioners who use currently available models for creating schemas to communicate requirements during the entire lifecycle of a system

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