A preliminary GQM model to evaluate web API usability⋆
Resumen
Web APIs allow easy access to a variety of resources and services, and it is because of that they have become essential for building modern applications. This generated a new business perspective, “the API economy”, and for that reason, usability now turns into a key characteristic for the acceptance of a web API. Although web API usability is a researched topic, no studies proposing a usability model for web APIs have been found. For that reason, this study presents a preliminary model to help standardize and facilitate web API usability assessment. Our model, based on the GQM approach, has six goals, eight questions, and 32 metrics. We evaluated its usefulness through a survey directed to web API consumers and developers. Feedback suggests that the model is on the right track, and could have a positive impact on web API usability in the future