For my thesis, I have created a development approach (consisting of schemes, an application template and prototype code) that should make it easier to develop and adapt applications for a specific platform.I have conducted interviews with developers of that platform to evaluate my approach. There have been 5 interviewees so far and the feedback that I got from them is sufficient for my scope, I would say.However, in my thesis I would like to justify my decision that 5 evaluators are enough. Is there any scientific research or paper that suggests a certain number of evaluators for such a rather theoretical approach?I know Nielsen's work about heuristic usability evaluation which says that with 5 participants, you discover around 75% of all problems in software usability / UI testing.But as I said, my approach is no specific software product that has to be evaluated, but only the model itself, which is why I'm looking for research in that area.
Ideal number of participants for evaluation of development approach / software architecture
reference request;software engineering;empirical research