Comparing data modeling formalisms
Communications of the ACM
Requirements gathering: the human factor
Communications of the ACM
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
The Unified Modeling Language user guide
The Unified Modeling Language user guide
UML 2001: a standardization odyssey
Communications of the ACM
Applying use cases (2nd ed.): a practical guide
Applying use cases (2nd ed.): a practical guide
Will UML 2.0 be agile or awkward?
Communications of the ACM - Internet abuse in the workplace and Game engines in scientific research
Multimedia Learning
Writing Effective Use Cases
Why significant UML change is unlikely
Communications of the ACM
Quality and Understandability of Use Case Models
ECOOP '01 Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming
Building Formal Requirements Models for Reliable Software
Ada Europe '01 Proceedings of the 6th Ade-Europe International Conference Leuven on Reliable Software Technologies
Should Optional Properties Be Used in Conceptual Modelling? A Theory and Three Empirical Tests
Information Systems Research
Research Commentary: Information Systems and Conceptual Modeling--A Research Agenda
Information Systems Research
Evaluating modeling techniques based on models of learning
Communications of the ACM - Service-oriented computing
Complexity and clarity in conceptual modeling: comparison of mandatory and optional properties
Data & Knowledge Engineering - Special issue: Quality in conceptual modeling
Data & Knowledge Engineering - Special issue: Quality in conceptual modeling
Communications of the ACM - Two decades of the language-action perspective
Effects of defects in UML models: an experimental investigation
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering
Journal of Systems and Software - Special issue: Quality software
Information Systems Research
ER'07 Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Advances in conceptual modeling: foundations and applications
Current practices in the use of UML
ER'05 Proceedings of the 24th international conference on Perspectives in Conceptual Modeling
An Experimental Comparison of Use Case Models Understanding by Novice and High Knowledge Users
Proceedings of the 2010 conference on New Trends in Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques: Proceedings of the 9th SoMeT_10
Journal of Information Technology Research
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The effective analysis and specification of requirements is critical in software development. Faults in the requirements may have significant impact on the quality of the software system. Use cases describe and analyze requirements in many current Object Oriented OO development methodologies, and can serve as a means for developers to communicate with different stakeholders. However, issues concerning use case format and level of detail are unclear and debatable. This study uses theories from cognitive psychology on how humans understand text and diagrams to investigate the effect of use case model format on end user understanding. An experiment to assess the performance of novices when using different use case formats indicated that for tasks that required only surface understanding of the use case model, the provision of diagrams along with the textual use case descriptions significantly improved comprehension performance in both familiar and unfamiliar application domains. However, the author found no statistically significant difference in performance between simple and detailed diagrams, suggesting that the provision of simple diagrams along with textual use case descriptions might be sufficient to support the negotiation and communication on system requirements between novice end-users and system analysts.