A Controlled Experiment on the Usability of Automated Reflexion Mapping Suggestions Integrated in Code Cities

Reflexion modeling allows developers to reconstruct and verify their software architecture against its implementation. One step of this method is the mapping of implementation components onto architecture components. Researchers have tried to automate the process of recommending suggestions where to map implementation components. This paper describes how such techniques can be integrated in an interactive approach that is based on software visualization using the code-city metaphor and evaluates the usability of this approach through a controlled experiment. During our user study, effects of reduced cognitive effort and time savings were measured when automated suggestions were available during reflexion modeling, although no statistical significance of the observed differences could be established.