Diretivas de Comunicabilidade para Artefatos de Software

Abstract

Software artifacts developed in the early stages of the software development process help practitioners to understand the structure and architecture design of the system, as well as how users can interact with the system. As these artifacts describe the proposed solutions for software development, they are important for team communication. Communication failures can occur because producers tend to focus only on the content of artifacts, although they should also reflect on how model consumers will interpret them. In this context, this thesis aimed to answer the following research question: How to support effective communication between producers and consumers of artifacts developed in the early stages of software development? To answer this question, this research was based on the Design Science Research (DSR) cycle. The DSR cycle begins with the investigation of a problem and then artifacts are specified as solutions, which are evaluated in the context of the problem. The results of this evaluation could start a new round in the DSR cycle. The problem addressed in this thesis is a wicked problem, in which researchers seek solutions for the reduction of a specific gap. Therefore, the solution developed in this thesis aims to mitigate communication failures from software artifacts, promoting effective software development team communication through these artifacts. To investigate the problem, we carried out different empirical studies and a systematic mapping of the literature. The results provided insights for the proposal of an artifact as a solution. Thereby, we proposed the Directives of Communicability (DCs), based on theories that investigate different communication perspectives, to support producers’ reflections on their communication through software artifacts. We carried out different empirical studies for evaluating the DCs to reduce the risks of communication failures in artifacts and to support team communication through these artifacts. The results indicated that the producers’ reflection based on DCs promotes effective communication through the artifact. Therefore, DCs can be applied in software development to support effective communication through software artifact.