Bidirectional Traceability

I was busy studying for one of my Masters courses and I’m having to describe a teaching scenario that I have utilized in the last few years and identify if it would be considered behaviorist, cognitivist or constructivist.  All very interesting and it got me thinking about a course I taught about software development methodologies.  This was a two term course where we covered Rational Unified Process, Microsoft Solutions Framework and Capability Maturity Model.  And yes, a great course in my mind. I was reviewing the learning outcomes of the course and reflected upon them.  I came to the conclusion that two of the most important factors in methodology for software development are; strongly defined roles and responsibilities and bidirectional traceability.  The roles and responsibilities keep people motivated cause there is no question to what they have to do and the traceability forces quality.  The course I taught would be considered constructivist. It build on ideas taught in the first course and forced the students to participate together in problem solving activities.