Disambiguating Software Property Descriptions: A Solution Proposal and Evaluation

Context: The state-of-the-art and practice on software quality is growing constantly and presents several challenges. The ever-growing body of knowledge on the topic, obfuscates the situation further, the lack of explicit structure makes it difficult to identify which properties exist today and how they can be evaluated, two critical aspects to increase software quality. Objective: A step to disambiguate software properties descriptions is made via a Property Model Ontology (PMO) and steps towards the evaluation of the structure are carried out together with experts. The objectives of this paper are: 1) present in detail the PMO, 2) describe the research process used to develop and evaluate the PMO, and, 3) exemplify the usage of the PMO through real instantiations obtained from practitioners and researchers. Method: Expert interviews and qualitative research methods are used to evaluate the PMO and develop a proof of concept. Results: The PMO consists of concepts describing extra-functional properties (EFPs) and their evaluation methods, i.e., how to measure the properties. The PMO is instantiated in a modelling environment through a metamodel and an online web-content management system. Conclusions: Consensus on the definition and structure of EFPs is achieved and a common understanding on how they can be reused in practice.