In this paper, we show the results of a controlled experiment aiming at assessing the benefits of usability improvements for software inspection methodologies that rely on Model Checking. This work has been carried out in the context of the SOLIMVA 3.0 methodology which uses Model Checking to help in the inspection of software designs. A tool, XMITS, has been developed to support SOLIMVA 3.0. Thus, we compared the benefits in terms of cost mainly related to the Modeling activity of SOLIMVA, by using the new (3.0) and the previous (2.0) versions of XMITS. We considered 20 sets of UML behavioral diagrams from two different space application systems and the ATM system. Results backed by statistical analysis show that XMITS 3.0 was better than XMITS 2.0, helping to decrease the total time spent in the Modeling phase. This fact confirms that true usability improvements in software products can have a significant impact on processes such as inspection.
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