Teaching iterative and collaborative design: Lessons and directions

We describe the motivation for an ongoing series of experiments to enhance a team-based object-oriented software engineering course with a collaborative design tool. The course, which is taught in a single semester to senior undergraduates has achieved success in several dimensions, in particular in its application of object-oriented methods for analysis and design to the associated course project. We have recently started to increase the realism of the course by involving the students increasingly in iterative development, in particular on the system design level. We analyze some of the problems emerging from this decision and identify the key issues that must be addressed to allow for iteration in a single project course. A specific prototype information modeling environment supporting collaborative design is described and its applicability in the classroom is illustrated based on actual material from a recent version of the course.