A Simple Experiment in Top-Down Design

In this paper we: 1) discuss the need for quantitatively reproducible experiments in the study of top-down design; 2) propose the design and writing of tutorial papers as a suitably general and inexpensive vehicle; 3) suggest the software science parameters as appropriate metrics; 4) report two experiments validating the use of these metrics on outlines and prose; and 5) demonstrate that the experiments tended toward the same optimal modularity.