Use-Perspective Unit Documentation

Introductory software engineering students working on larger projects commonly encounter difficulty in group decision-making and architectural design. A use-perspective documentation framework is taught to students which is structured to overcome these two problems. Projects to which this framework is applied can be decomposed into a main unit, which requires input of the entire group, and subunits, which can be designed and coded by individual group members. A document is produced for each of the units concerning external behavior, required setup and usage of the unit. Creation of this document fosters communication and decision-making skills and requires students to engage in architectural design.