Structured Interviews on the Object-oriented Paradigm Rrr955182 Efocs-7-955

The method of structured interviewing is an appropriate means of conducting a primary investigation when beginning a programme of research involving di erent empirical techniques because (i) interviewing experienced users from academia and industry should determine if academics are exploring issues that industrialists deem important, (ii) interviewing users from industry helps provide external validity, (iii) users of object-oriented systems have their own views on the bene ts and drawbacks of the paradigm. These opinions could then be used as evidence to decide whether an empirically unsupported practice is justi ed and warrants further, more controlled investigation, and (iv) these views can identify issues that have not been previously considered. Structured interviews, each based on a template of 23 questions, were carried out with 13 experienced object-oriented users to explore problems discussed in the object-oriented literature concerned with high level system understanding, inheritance, software maintenance, and other issues. Interviews lasted between 30 min-