Better Design Rationale to Improve Software Design Quality

Abstract

Context: Helping designers make a good design decision, there are two approaches already proposed. They are Design Rationale and design reasoning. These two approaches have different focus within the design discourse session. However, there are no studies before on how these two approaches could be connected. Objective: We summarize the previous approach of capturing and presenting Design Rationale to identify the main concept of this approach. We explore the available techniques that help designers during the reasoning process. Furthermore, we want to identify the link between design reasoning and Design Rationale, as they are the process and the product of the design discourse session. Method: We conducted an exploratory experiment on 12 student teams, divided into test group and control group. We provide design-reasoning technique with a card game to the test group, while the control group conducts their design without any support. We use combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. We also analyze the process of design discourse in both groups using process mining. Results: We found that the treatment has an effect on the quantity of the assumption made and the risk identified by the designer. The results highlight the significance of reasoning techniques as the mean to improve the product of design discourse. Conclusions: We conclude that the design reasoning techniques as the link between these two approaches.