Chapter 2 - Exploring How the Attribute Driven Design Method Is Perceived

Abstract

A method for designing software architecture based on achieving quality attributes is the attribute driven design (ADD) method. This method has not been explored in terms of users’ perception of its usefulness and easiness of use. Our goal is to study the perceptions of software engineers with no or little experience industrially in designing software architecture using the ADD. In this chapter, we describe an empirical study that we conducted on master students to measure their perceptions of the ADD after using it. We performed two experiments, one with students enrolled in the Software Architecture module in 2010 and repeated it with the students of the same module in 2011. Our main findings are that the subjects perceive ADD method as useful and that there is a relationship between its usefulness and willingness of use. However, the subjects’ opinion was that they did not agree that the ADD method is easy to be used. We also discuss several problems that the subjects faced when using ADD.