AN EMPIRICAL-INVESTIGATION INTO PROBLEM DECOMPOSITION STRATEGIES USED IN PROGRAM DESIGN

Preliminary findings are presented of a research study into general problem decomposition strategies used in program design. The initial phase of the investigation involved three separate experiments in which groups of subjects familiar with the principles of structured programming were asked to undertake certain tasks associated with a particular programming problem, solutions to which can be mapped onto one of two process decomposition paradigms. Problem-solving strategies are advanced that account for the two types of solution and are consistent with the experimental results obtained. The latter revealed that solutions are strong biased in favor of one of these paradigms, and that this bias can be explained in terms of 'perception difficulty' allied to inadequacies in abstraction skills attributable to inappropriate previous training. The possible effects caused by problem specification characteristics are also discussed briefly.