Inoculating Novice Software Designers with Expert Design Strategies

David R. Wright

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Design Cognition III
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education
Page Count: 25
Page Numbers: 25.784.1 - 25.784.25
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21541
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21541
Download Count: 545

Paper Authors

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David R. Wright North Carolina State University

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David Wright earned his Ph.D. in computer science from North Carolina State University. He is currently a Research Associate in the Computer Science Department, overseeing the day-to-day operations of four different research projects. Wright has taught a variety of undergraduate courses at NCSU and other local institutions. His research interests include software design and engineering education, focusing on ways to help students think more like engineering professionals than students, as well as developing teaching and learning tools and strategies that help keep students interested in computer science.

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Abstract

Inoculating Novice Software Designers with Expert Design Strategies Abstract Computer science and software engineering students need to develop the knowledge andskills necessary to build large, complex, and reliable software systems to solve problems thatare ill-structured, incompletely deﬁned, and full of apparently conﬂicting information. Theapproaches employed by novices to solve these types of problems are signiﬁcantly diﬀerentthan those used by expert designers. The Principles, Patterns, and Process Framework(P 3 F ) is proposed as a solution to the problem of encapsulating expert design strategiesand making them accessible to novice designers. In particular, the P 3 F is designed to helpnovices build and maintain a systemic view of a design problem, eﬃciently navigate andmanipulate the problem/solution space, and make eﬀective design decisions. This paper presents the results of an interrupted time-series experiment conducted tostudy the eﬀects of introducing the P 3 F to novice software designers. Data collectedincluded subjects’ self-assessments of their design behaviors, verbal protocols of the subjectsworking on complex software system design problems, and the artifacts representing theirsolutions to these problems. The self-assessments were compared against the behaviorsobserved in the recorded protocols to characterize the subjects’ design behavior before andafter the introduction of the P 3 F and identify changes attributable to their use of theFramework. The solution artifacts were evaluated against a design quality rubric and theseresults were analyzed to identify improvements in the quality of the solutions that correlatedwith the introduction of the P 3 F . The results of this study suggest that the Principles, Patterns, and Process Frameworkcan help novice software designers adopt expert design strategies and improve their personaldesign skills. Two of the ﬁve subjects that completed the study demonstrated signiﬁcanttransformations in their construction and navigation of their view of the design problem andevolving solution as well as an improvement in the quality of the solutions they produced.Another two subjects adopted, to a lesser extent, aspects of the expert strategies incorporatedin the P 3 F while retaining much of their novice behaviors. The ﬁfth subject showed littleor no behavioral change or diﬀerence in solution artifact quality. While there is a small but signiﬁcant body of research studying expert and novice designbehaviors, there have been few attempts to bridge the gap to cultivate expert-like behaviors innovice software designers. This work contributes such an attempt combined with an eﬀort tomeasure the change induced by the introduction of the P 3 F . Furthermore, because the designof the Framework drew from a broad range of design-intensive disciplines, the P 3 F can beadapted to suit a variety of design environments. The positive results obtained in this studyinvite further investigation and reﬁnement of the P 3 F in the realm of engineering design.

Citation
Format

Wright, D. R. (2012, June), Inoculating Novice Software Designers with Expert Design Strategies Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21541

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                Inoculating Novice Software Designers                   with Expert Design Strategies                                          Abstract    Computer science and software engineering students need to develop the knowledge andskills necessary to build large, complex, and reliable software systems to solve problems thatare ill-structured, incompletely deﬁned, and full of apparently conﬂicting information. Theapproaches employed by novices to solve these types of problems are signiﬁcantly diﬀerentthan those used by expert designers. The Principles, Patterns, and Process Framework(P 3 F ) is proposed as a solution to the problem of encapsulating expert design strategiesand making them accessible to novice designers. In particular, the P 3 F is designed to helpnovices build and maintain a systemic view of a design problem, eﬃciently navigate andmanipulate the problem/solution space, and make eﬀective design decisions.    This paper presents the results of an interrupted time-series experiment conducted tostudy the eﬀects of introducing the P 3 F to novice software designers. Data collectedincluded subjects’ self-assessments of their design behaviors, verbal protocols of the subjectsworking on complex software system design problems, and the artifacts representing theirsolutions to these problems. The self-assessments were compared against the behaviorsobserved in the recorded protocols to characterize the subjects’ design behavior before andafter the introduction of the P 3 F and identify changes attributable to their use of theFramework. The solution artifacts were evaluated against a design quality rubric and theseresults were analyzed to identify improvements in the quality of the solutions that correlatedwith the introduction of the P 3 F .    The results of this study suggest that the Principles, Patterns, and Process Frameworkcan help novice software designers adopt expert design strategies and improve their personaldesign skills. Two of the ﬁve subjects that completed the study demonstrated signiﬁcanttransformations in their construction and navigation of their view of the design problem andevolving solution as well as an improvement in the quality of the solutions they produced.Another two subjects adopted, to a lesser extent, aspects of the expert strategies incorporatedin the P 3 F while retaining much of their novice behaviors. The ﬁfth subject showed littleor no behavioral change or diﬀerence in solution artifact quality.    While there is a small but signiﬁcant body of research studying expert and novice designbehaviors, there have been few attempts to bridge the gap to cultivate expert-like behaviors innovice software designers. This work contributes such an attempt combined with an eﬀort tomeasure the change induced by the introduction of the P 3 F . Furthermore, because the designof the Framework drew from a broad range of design-intensive disciplines, the P 3 F can beadapted to suit a variety of design environments. The positive results obtained in this studyinvite further investigation and reﬁnement of the P 3 F in the realm of engineering design.
AU  - David R. Wright
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Inoculating Novice Software Designers with Expert Design Strategies
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21541
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21541
ER  -