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Teaching Students Software Architecture Decision Making

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Software Architecture (ECSA 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 12292))

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Abstract

Making the right decisions is challenging for architects on all levels of seniority. Less experienced architects in particular perceive the transition from design problems to their solutions as hard; it is not always clear how to find suitable concepts and technologies, how to compare alternatives, and how to build consensus. Lack of experience makes it difficult to train software engineering students in the identification, selection, and collective evaluation of design alternatives. Moreover, human factors such as cognitive bias make “soft” topics like architecture decisions rather hard to teach. To overcome these issues and let students gain the required experience, a Spanish University ran two experiments. Undergraduate computer science students assumed different roles in collaborative decision-making tasks and design activities. They used a novel decision-modeling tool to capture and challenge the relevant design decisions. This paper describes this new teaching setup and reports on lessons learned.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 – Systems and software engineering – architecture description. Available at: https://www.iso.org/standard/50508.html.

  2. 2.

    The IBM e-business reference architecture taught about the importance of architectural decisions; decision capturing was a recommended practice at IBM since, at least, 1998.

  3. 3.

    https://www.ifs.hsr.ch/ADMentor-Tool.13201.0.html?&L=4.

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Acknowledgements

H. Astudillo’s work was partially funded by grant ANID PIA/APOYO AFB180002. O. Zimmermann’s work was partially funded by the Hasler Foundation (project number: 19083).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain

    Rafael Capilla

  2. HSR Hochschule für Technik, Rapperswil, Switzerland

    Olaf Zimmermann

  3. Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Carlos Carrillo

  4. Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Hernán Astudillo

Authors
  1. Rafael Capilla
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  2. Olaf Zimmermann
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  3. Carlos Carrillo
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  4. Hernán Astudillo
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Rafael Capilla , Olaf Zimmermann , Carlos Carrillo or Hernán Astudillo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Koninklijke Philips N.V., Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Anton Jansen

  2. VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ivano Malavolta

  3. University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

    Henry Muccini

  4. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA, USA

    Ipek Ozkaya

  5. University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland, Rapperswil, Switzerland

    Olaf Zimmermann

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Capilla, R., Zimmermann, O., Carrillo, C., Astudillo, H. (2020). Teaching Students Software Architecture Decision Making. In: Jansen, A., Malavolta, I., Muccini, H., Ozkaya, I., Zimmermann, O. (eds) Software Architecture. ECSA 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12292. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58923-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58923-3_16

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-58923-3

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