An empirical study in using linked documentation to assist software maintenance

A software system’s success is primarily dependent upon its usability and maintainability. Changes to user requirements and the circumstances under which the system is used, means that a well-engineered system must be easily adapted to these changes, otherwise its usability and utility will diminish. An experiment is reported which hypothesises, that by linking related aspects of the system, reacting to change will be easier. The paper concludes that, although linking related aspects can increase the maintainers’ comprehension of the system, they are apt to rely too heavily upon the links. The conclusions have implications for design rationale in general.