An empirical investigation into the program design process

Abstract

In this paper an experiment in which students who had been taught the principles of structured programming had to design a program is described. The designs were classified according to the choice of decomposition and a number of design characteristics. The results are discussed within the framework of problem solving. In particular, in this paper the use of such strategies as “incremental design” and “process the next item” as a basis for decomposition is identified. Furthermore, the results are interpreted in the context of current ideas on program design, and a relationship between the choice of decomposition, the likelihood of a correct design and the ease with which a designer produces a solution is proposed.