Scaffolding Collaborative Software Design with Serious Games

An application's architecture is frequently refactored after deployment to accommodate its users' evolving needs. However, we currently lack a repeatable, consistent method to teach high-level collaborative design skills. Drawing on the serious play framework, we advance an existing analog exercise for scaffolding collaborative design using a new system: the LLM-managed application overview. From an instructor prompt, the system generates an overview detailing an entire application using CRC cards -- common industry design aids that forego any code or implementation detail. Students individually edit the cards to redesign the application's architecture, while the system simulates the effects of these edits by updating emulated code metrics and estimating redesign cost. Returning to their teams, students discuss the cost and complexity of their designs before selecting and refining a single solution. By the activity's end, the students will have practiced all the design skills necessary for a months-long cycle of development, without the students or the instructor manually managing any implementation details.