A cognitive perspective on developer comprehension of software design documentation

Software design documentation is an important aid for communication during software development and maintenance. Nevertheless, little empirical evidence exists regarding the use of software documentation, and effective software design representation in particular. In an experimental setting, we used documentation from industry in which aspects of a software design were modeled in both a (UML) diagram and text. We recorded and analysed how participants used these media to answer various design-related questions and collected additional information in various questionnaires. By having participants think aloud, we set out to understand the underlying cognitive processes of developer design comprehension by applying the grounded theory method. We validated the results with concepts from the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Results show a positive correlation between developer certainty and correctness of answers, whereas the opposite was not found. Also, self-rated experience and self-rated skill coincide with higher levels of certainty. We found that participants rated information based on perceived importance and that their "common sense" plays a significant role. Surprisingly, more than 60 percent of the answers were based on the consultation of a single medium. These results clearly ask for further investigation. We propose corresponding future work.