Models of designing: understanding software engineering education from the bottom up

We present a model of software designing that can be used to help understand what skills need to be developed by students of software engineering. Regardless of who, what or whether, if people are going to design software, it is imperative that educators understand what to teach students of software design. To teach it we must know what skills and knowledge are needed by students learning to design software. The paper touches on one part of developing the skill set, which is how those skills are cognitively constructed and used by students. We look at learning to design software as a staged developmental process and we examine the stages from the bottom up. We attempt to confirm our intuitive understandings of what software engineers need in an undergraduate program by examining verbal protocols of practicing designers and student designers. We develop a model of design knowledge and skill to uncover what students need to learn to be able to design software and use our protocols to determine if our model appropriately reflects the skills and knowledge of designers.