Assessing the cognitive consequences of the object-oriented approach: a survey of empirical research on object-oriented design by individuals and teams

摘要

This paper presents a state-of-art review of empirical research onobject-oriented (OO) design. Many claims about the cognitive benefits of the OOparadigm have been made by its advocates. These claims concern the ease ofdesigning and reusing software at the individual level as well as the benefitsof this paradigm at the team level. Since these claims are cognitive in nature,its seems important to assess them empirically. After a brief presentation ofthe main concepts of the OO paradigm, the claims about the superiority of OOdesign are outlined. The core of this paper consists of a review of empiricalstudies of OOD. We first discuss results concerning OOD by individuals. On thebasis of empirical work, we (1) analyse the design activity of novice OOdesigners, (2) compare OO design with procedural design and, (3) discuss atypology of problems relevant for the OO approach. Then we assess the claimsabout naturalness and ease of OO design. The next part discusses results on OOsoftware reuse. On the basis of empirical work, we (1) compare reuse in the OOversus procedural paradigm, (2) discuss the potential for OO software reuse and(3) analyse reuse activity in the OO paradigm. Then we assess claims onreusability. The final part reviews empirical work on OO design by teams. Wepresent results on communication, coordination, knowledge dissemination andinteractions with clients. Then we assess claims about OOD at the softwaredesign team level. In a general conclusion, we discuss the limitations of thesestudies and give some directions for future research.