activities are concentrated on the major features to be
implemented, which are grouped together in a few software units
with approximate implementation concerns such as size and
complexity. The major concern at the design phase is the
relationships among the various features.
The designers were successful in identifying those major features.
The Pre-ID phase, which is concentrated on the added and
adapted classes, involved most (77%) of the implemented
executable lines of code and most (72%) of the measured
cyclomatic complexity. In fact, seven of the eight classes
identified as complex were designed prior to implementation. This
shows that the developers were able to share their understanding
and synchronize their mental models on the most important
features of the future system.
This study shows that Pre-ID is not performed as in the traditional
engineering process. Software design artifacts constitute an
intermediate and evolving version of a model of the product, or,
more poetically, an "image of possibility". The keyword here is
possibility. This implies that the design can possibly evolve
toward improvement or deterioration.