Applying the Software Evaluation Framework 'SEF' to the Software Development Life Cycle

• Authors: Bernard Wong
• Venue: ISESE '03 Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering
• Year: 2003

The primary objective of this paper is to present anexploratory study on the different measurements used atdifferent milestones throughout a development project.The paper presents the results of a study, which usesqualitative techniques to investigate the cognitivestructures appropriate to the requirements phase and theimplementation phase of a software development cycle.The study involved an e-commerce project, and twostakeholder groups, the users and the developers. Theresults show that measurements between the differentphases are not the same, though the motivation behindthe choice of these measurements is the same for astakeholder group. The study also finds that the twogroups of stakeholders are very similar in themeasurements they choose for evaluating requirementsdocuments, however, the motivation behind their choiceof these measurements differ between the stakeholdergroups. These results are a contrast to that of theimplementation phase.These results, whilst still exploratory, are valuable asthey highlight the differences and similarities of not justthe stakeholder groups, but more importantly the choiceof measurements at the different milestones. As a result ofthis study, the Software Evaluation Framework has beenexpanded to consider the many milestones in adevelopment cycle. The result of this will be a frameworkto guide practitioners as they evaluate, test, review,walkthrough, or inspect the different artifacts that themany milestones deliver.