Collaborative Research: Teaching Software Modularity through Architectural Review

Drexel大学、Carnegie Mellon大学和夏威夷大学正在通过对软件模块化教学的研究来推进软件工程师的教育。本计画以设计规则理论、设计结构矩阵模型及架构检视为基础，探讨模组化设计。活动包括开发实验室和家庭作业，其中包括一系列现实软件应用程序的演变场景。一个教学包，其中包括活动，教学材料，并检测模块化问题的工具正在建设中。该工具用于识别学生实现中的设计问题。正在评估执行架构评审的几种方法，以确定哪种方法最有助于学生设计更好的模块化软件。模块化设计是软件工程师教育的一个基本主题，然而，关于如何教授它的严格研究却很少。本项目利用研究成果促进教学实践，并有可能促进我们对设计问题原因的基本理解，可能最终导致维护困难。项目的结果可能会从根本上改变软件设计的方式，通过引入严格的模块化分析技术和半自动架构审查到课堂上，导致更好的培训软件设计师谁配备的知识，技能和工具，以生产软件，产生低得多的维护成本。

Drexel University, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Hawaii are advancing the education of software engineers through research on teaching software modularity. This project addresses designing for modularity with an approach based on design rule theory, design structure matrix modeling, and architecture review. Activities include development of labs and homework assignments featuring a series of evolution scenarios for realistic software applications. A teaching package which includes the activities, instructional materials, and a tool for detecting modularity problems is being constructed. The tool is used to identify design problems within student implementations. Several approaches to performing architecture reviews are being evaluated to determine which approach best helps students design better modularized software.Designing for modularity is a fundamental topic in educating software engineers, yet there has been little rigorous research on how to teach it. This project leverages research results to facilitate teaching practice and has the potential to advance our basic understanding of the causes of design problems that may eventually result in maintenance difficulties. Project results may fundamentally change the way software design is taught by introducing rigorous modularity analysis techniques and semi-automatic architecture review into the classroom, resulting in better trained software designers who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and tools to produce software that incurs much lower maintenance costs.