SSDE: CASE in education

Abstract

Software Engineering is a difficult and time-consuming discipline to learn. CASE Tools are generally expensive, prescriptive and tedious to use. Structured Software Development Environment (SSDE) was developed as a teaching aid which can assist students with aspects of the software development life cycle, with a minimum of cost and effort. SSDE provides the system designer with an interactive menu-driven environment, and a framework within which he can conveniently express and manipulate his proposed solution. This representation is in terms of both a conceptual model and a detailed software logic definition. SSDE provides tools for both high-level (or logical) and low-level (or physical) design. It allows a user to follow his own preferred methodology rather than restricting him to one specific strategy. Experimental usage of SSDE at the University of the Western Cape showed that it is an effective tool for students of Software Engineering.