Educational Approach to an Experiment in a Software Architecture Course

This paper reports experiences from an experiment in a software architecture course where the focus was both on giving students valuable education as well as getting important empirical results. The paper describes how the experiment was integrated in the course, and presents an evaluation of the experiment from an educational point of view. Further, the paper reflects on the costs and the benefits of carrying out an experiment in the context of a software architecture course for the involved stakeholders namely the researchers, the students, and the instructors. We also describe some guidelines for planning and executing experiments as a part of a software engineering course.