Strategy Patterns and Quality Views for Evaluating and Improving Usability

Abstract

For those software organizations that frequently perform quality assurance activities devoted to measurement, evaluation (ME) and change/improvement (MEC) projects, a well-founded quality evaluation and improvement approach may be useful. In this direction, we have developed a holistic quality evaluation and improvement approach whose architecture is based on two pillars, namely: a quality multi-view modeling framework, and ME/MEC integrated strategies. In order to bolster the former pillar, in this work we specify an ontology for quality views. Quality views and their ‘influences' and ‘depends on' relationships between them, are paramount for defining and selecting evaluation and improvement strategy patterns to be used in ME/MEC projects. A strategy pattern is a reusable solution to recurrent problems in MEC projects. For a specific project goal, the selected strategy pattern allows one to instantiate a concrete strategy, which embraces a set of tailored activities and methods for measurement, evaluation, analysis and change. In this paper, we also discuss a set of strategy patterns and document a concrete strategy pattern applied in one case study, which is aimed at understanding and improving Usability of a social network.