A Controlled Experiment for Assessing the Contribution of Design Pattern Documentation on Software Maintenance

In this paper we present the preliminary results of a controlled experiment to assess the contribution provided by the design patterns on the maintenance of source code. In particular, the study aimed at assessing the effort and the efficiency to perform maintenance operations in case design pattern instances are properly documented and provided to the maintainer. The context of the experiment is constituted of Master Students in Computer Science at the University of Basilicata. The preliminary analysis conducted on the gathered data revealed that the effort is significantly reduced in case design pattern instances are properly documented and provided to the subjects. Similarly, the efficiency is significantly better in case the documentation of design pattern instances is used to accomplish maintenance operations.