Business processes modeling: Effect of notation method in the ambiguity level

Abstract

The aim of this controlled and randomized experimental study was to analyze the functional requirement specification. The possible impacts of process modeling notation method in the ambiguity level of natural language specification were evaluated. The notations were used as a tool to express the user’s needs about buying process in e-commerce applications - typical Enterprise Information System use case. From a low-fidelity prototype, that represents the purchasing process in a virtual store, 43 undergraduate computer science students were grouped according to the notations performed: natural (Brazilian Portuguese) language control group (CG); finite state machine experimental group (FSMEG); and combined notation experimental group (CNEG) that used manual annotation of semantic roles based on finite state machine. It was used the concept that deals with ambiguity as inconsistent information that leads to multiple interpretations of functional requirement specification document. By a Test-based Reading technique, associated with the use of appropriate quality metric, a one-way analysis of variance (completely randomized design) was conducted to know if notation method, as a primary factor, affects the ambiguity level. The inter-group comparison suggests that: combined notation is the best method to minimize ambiguity levels in requirement specification; and that requirement specification expressed in finite state machine generates the higher ambiguity level among assessed notations. However, these trends are not statistically significant. Generally, it was observed that the independent variable, notation method, does not affect the ambiguity level in the process described in the functional requirement specification.