Usability Prediction & Ranking of SDLC Models Using Fuzzy Hierarchical Usability Model

Abstract

Evaluation of software quality is an important aspect for controlling and managing the software. By such evaluation, improvements in software process can be made. The software quality is significantly dependent on software usability. Many researchers have proposed numbers of usability models. Each model considers a set of usability factors but do not cover all the usability aspects. Practical implementation of these models is still missing, as there is a lack of precise definition of usability. Also, it is very difficult to integrate these models into current software engineering practices.In order to overcome these challenges, this paper aims to define the term ‘usability’ using the proposed hierarchical usability model with its detailed taxonomy. The taxonomy considers generic evaluation criteria for identifying the quality components, which brings together factors, attributes and characteristics defined in various HCI and software models. For the first time, the usability model is also implemented to predict more accurate usability values. The proposed system is named as fuzzy hierarchical usability model that can be easily integrated into the current software engineering practices. In order to validate the work, a dataset of six software development life cycle models is created and employed. These models are ranked according to their predicted usability values. This research also focuses on the detailed comparison of proposed model with the existing usability models.

Feature selection algorithm for usability engineering: a nature inspired approach

“…0 and 1, also called the binary numbers, are used to specify whether these features are present or not in the six software development life cycle models. This research paper has used a dataset which has been taken from [2,9].…”

“…Amidst these factors which determine quality, usability plays a particularly important role that has to be taken into account during the various processes of software development [43]. Software engineering experts interpret usability in their own terms [2]. In simple words, usability of software is described as the ease with which a man-made object can be used, remembered and learnt.…”

Investigating the Importance of Psychological and Environmental Factors for Improving Learner’s Performance Using Hidden Markov Model

“…Yang et al [52] proposed high order dynamic prediction of financial trading strategies using Hidden Markov Models. Fuzzy expert system is used to design hierarchical software usability model [54], [55] to foresee live auction portal [56], [57] and software development life cycle models [58]. Live auction and SDLC datasets has been discoursed in [59].…”

Qualitative usability feature selection with ranking: a novel approach for ranking the identified usability problematic attributes for academic websites using data-mining techniques

“…association rules and decision rules are implemented) and significant usability problem patterns are identified belonging to homepages of websites [8,12]. Fuzzy and model-driven development approaches [34][35][36][37][38] are also adopted for usability evaluation of software and websites. Usability evaluation has been significantly adopted in various domains e.g.…”