The Central Role of Design in Software Engineering

Design is relevant to all software engineering activities and is the central integrating activity that ties the others together. Thus, it is essential that software engineering education provide solid and in-depth instruction in design. While there is a good deal of current activity directed toward improving education in programming methods, we see little directed toward improving education in programming methods, we see little directed toward design education. Development of software engineering curricula offers an opportunity to place design in its proper perspective.