Towards a Standardized Evaluation of APIs Non-Functional Requirements Focused on Completeness and Soundness Qualities

Abstract

Nowadays, well-designed user documentation plays a relevant role in the development and delivery of high-quality software products. It minimizes software maintenance costs either for developers and managers by following quality standards during software life-cycle process. In this research work it is proposed an assessment approach consisting of a set of metrics, a methodology, and a guideline focused on supporting the testing of non-functional requirements of Application Program Interfaces (APIs). An emphasis is made on the evaluation of soundness and completeness qualities of the official documentation of APIs to support its evaluation of documentation’s usability. Furthermore, a straightforward criterion is proposed to rate the soundness and completeness qualities in an easily readable way.