PROGRAM DESIGN METHODOLOGIES AND THE SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

This research examined program design methodologies which claim to improve the design process by providing strategies to programmers for structuring solutions to computer problems. In this experiment, professional programmers were provided with the specifications for each of three non-trivial problems and asked to produce pseudo-code for each specification according to the principles of a particular design methodology. The measures collected were the time to design and code, percent complete, and complexity, as measured by several metrics. These data were used to develop profiles of the solutions produced by different methodologies and to develop comparisons among the various methodologies. These differences are discussed in light of their impact on the comprehensibility, reliability, and maintainability of the programs produced. © 1992.