Towards a case-based learning approach to support software architecture education Brauner R. N. Oliveira1and Elisa Y. Nakagawa1

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Towards a case-based learning approach to

support software architecture education

Brauner R. N. Oliveira1and Elisa Y. Nakagawa1

¹University of São Paulo, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

brauner@usp.br, elisa@icmc.usp.br

Abstract. Software architecture education remains challenging for in-

structors, students, and software industry professionals. Several initia-

tives have been proposed to mitigate the inherent challenges, including

games, supporting tools, collaborative courses, and hands-on projects.

Case-based learning has been introduced in software architecture, and its

beneﬁts are recognized. However, choosing the right cases that cover the

stated learning objectives and developing learning activities to achieve

high-order learning are also challenging. The main goal of this paper is

to present a case-based learning approach that guides the development

of learning objectives, the ﬁnding and selection of real-world software

architecture cases, and the design of instructional activities. We applied

our approach in software architecture related courses during the past

few years. The results show that it can leverage the ways to adequately

explore cases for educational purposes while also motivating instructors

and students to the software architecture education.

Keywords: Software architecture education ·Case-based learning ·Teach-

ing.

1 Introduction

Several initiatives and experiences of teaching software architecture have been

published pointing out to what can be considered a consensus: Teaching software

architecture is a challenging task [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Several factors can explain it,

including the existing gap between low-level courses (e.g., programming and

data structures) and architecture [9], the diﬃculty to precisely deﬁne what soft-

ware architectures are exactly due to several existing deﬁnitions and notions

available1, and the high-order cognitive tasks and knowledge involved in archi-

tectural activities [4]. Moreover, students have diﬃculties with solving a given

problem when many ways exist to solve that problem, i.e., there is no single

best solution [2,4]; this is the case for software architecture design. In turn,

the architectural design process is diﬃcult to be performed with conﬁdence due

to many aspects to be considered when making architectural decisions, which

are sometimes made along with the software development [5]. In general, the

1What is your deﬁnition of software architecture?

arXiv:2210.04794v1 [cs.CY] 12 Sep 2022

2 Oliveira, B. R. N. and Nakagawa, E. Y.

desired skills of architects are mostly developed or gained through experience

over many years designing software architectures [3,5,8]. Otherwise, instructors

have usually a small amount of time during courses to address software architec-

ture topics that students further face in industry and also to teach those topics

in an adequate way that ease the path throughout their career. Other reasons

that make teaching software architecture too diﬃcult are deeply discussed in

[4]. Without appropriate directions for teaching software architecture, designing

suitable architectures for particular problems becomes challenging for software

architects.

To overcome the inherent and challenging nature of teaching software ar-

chitecture, many initiatives were already proposed, as summarized in [10]. This

study reported several initiatives, including types of experience in software ar-

chitecture education, software architecture topics considered relevant for the

learning process, categories of learning objectives, and educational approaches.

For instance, [8] proposed a card game to support the learning process regarding

architectural decision making. Similarly, [5] developed a card game that leverages

the learning of ADD (Attribute-Driven Development). A project-based learning

approach was designed and applied to teach architectural design process in agile

projects [7]. Case-based learning has also been explored in diﬀerent occasions

and ways to achieve simple to high-order learning objectives, including in soft-

ware architecture [6,11,12,13]. Whereas the use of cases for learning purposes has

beneﬁts [14,15,16], the adoption of a case-based approach is not an easy task.

Instructors have had diverse inherent diﬃculties, such as the ﬁnding, selection,

and development of cases, design of instructional material, design of in-class ac-

tivities based on cases, and assurance that the learning objectives are achieved

appropriately, as also previously presented in [17]. Hence, the research question

that motivated the conduction of this work was: How is it possible to adequately

use case-based learning for software architecture education?

The main goal of this paper is to present CBSAE, a case-based learning

approach that explores the use of cases for software architecture education. In

short, CBSAE encompasses the deﬁnition of learning objectives, selection of cases

(i.e., ﬁnding and assessment of cases as well as conduction of case studies), and

design of instructional material and activities. For that, we used Design Science

as a research method and conducted three evaluations to verify the relevance of

adopting cases and the viability of our approach. As a result, we observe that

CBSAE is useful for leveraging software architecture education.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents

CBSAE. Section 3 presents results of the preliminary evaluations, whereas

Section 4 discusses the results and future work, and Section 5 presents the

ﬁnal remarks.

2 CBSAE: A Case-Based Learning Approach

CBSAE is composed of three main activities, as shown in Figure 1.1. Deﬁni-

tion of Topics and Learning Objectives aims at establishing the learning

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Towardsacase-basedlearningapproachtosupportsoftwarearchitectureeducationBraunerR.N.Oliveira1andElisaY.Nakagawa1¹UniversityofSãoPaulo,SãoCarlos,SP,Brazilbrauner@usp.br,elisa@icmc.usp.brAbstract.Softwarearchitectureeducationremainschallengingforin-structors,students,andsoftwareindustryprofessionals.Se...

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Towards a case-based learning approach to support software architecture education Brauner R. N. Oliveira1and Elisa Y. Nakagawa1

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