College of Computing Sciences

Report on Senior Project Capstone Courses:Senior Project Capstone Courses:

Strategies, Techniques and ProgressStrategies, Techniques and Progress

Prepared by  

Osama EljabiriOsama Eljabiri Director of

Senior Project Capstone Courses

Presented toPresented to The EDC Monthly Meeting The EDC Monthly Meeting

Senior Project CapstoneSenior Project Capstone CourseCourse

What is it ?What is it ?

Team-oriented project course which is result-driven , ROI- focused and customer-oriented.

Course instructor offers or solicits a selection of projects from industry , faculty and students themselves.

Students utilize their backgrounds in 4 years of college education in producing well-engineered and well documented products.

Students develop a software-driven solution for a business problem they firstly have to analyze , diagnose and model.

Senior Project CapstoneSenior Project Capstone CourseCourseHow it works?How it works?

During the early part of the semester : Students choose one of the proposed projects If approved ( by instructor and sponsor) they sign a disclosure

agreement with their sponsor. Form interdisciplinary teams of 4-6 students that fit into 4-6 key

job descriptions Teams devise and implement a plan for solving the business

problem Then throughout the semester :

Teams periodically report to [ class , instructor and sponsor ] to present the progress of their work.

Finally : Teams formally present their projects and submit deliverables

to sponsor and course instructor.

The Triple Win Multi-Stakeholder Satisfaction Triangle

SeniorProject

CapstoneCourse

STUDENTS

SPONSORS COLLEGE

The First WinnerThe First Winner Students

•Real world exposure and problem solving

•Interaction with professional stakeholders

•New skills mastered and experience acquired .

•Effective usage of education and backgrounds

•Substantial value to their resumes

Industry• Cost effective : Students achieve solutions to business problems free of charge

• Productive : Students provide solutions in a short time frame using rapid application development

• Adaptive and Flexible : Students can do projects from 3-12 credits project (one to four semester projects)

• Effective : Teams combined from 4 majors will use their 4 years of college education plus experience and university resources in

tackling problems

• Comprehensive : Students will provide a complete documentation for the full development process from problem identification to final

implementation

• Measurable and Tangible : Project progress can be easily assessed via biweekly progress reports , biweekly prototypes , biweekly presentations ,

testing methods and statistical analysis

• Result-Driven : Through the sponsor evaluation form , no grade is given without user acceptance and customer satisfaction

The Second Winner

The Second Winner Other Industry Benefits

• Creates an opportunity for evaluating potential hires

• Builds strong ties with the university and faculty that may result into research and consulting benefits to the sponsor in fields of interest.

• Makes the sponsor more visible on and off-campus.

• Involves sponsor in supporting educational efforts for future specialists in area of interest to him.

College and University

• Added-value for all academic courses

• Students become as school performance indicators wherever they go.

• Endless windows of opportunities for research , support and placement for graduates .

• The entire school system becomes more attractive which boosts enrollment rates.

The Third Winner

METHOD

Work Flow Standardized

Process

TeamworkInterdisciplinary Team structure

Well-Defined Plan Clear Agenda

Motivation•Continuous Feedback•Evaluation techniques

•Competitive environment

HelpFacilitatingResources

Leadership Project

Managers

Channels Effective

Communication

ProductivityIterative

Development

Senior Project StatisticsSenior Project Statistics  For the Fall 2002 , we had a total of 22 groups doing 22 senior projects .

In Spring 2003 we had 34 teams doing 491/492 , 10 teams doing 490 and 2 supportive research teams doing 485.

In Fall projects, (15) were externally sponsored .This is a percentage of 68.2% of our senior projects currently with external sponsors while we have 26 projects with external sponsors in Spring 2003 (i.e.: 76.5%)

This makes the total parentage of sponsored projects (internally and externally ) this semester 90.9%.  The percentage of Sponsorships in Spring 2003 was 94.2%.

Only two of our Fall 2002 senior projects are generic (but good) applications without sponsors .We have the same number this semester.

Some important projects this Spring include : one of McKesson and one with CIT (multiple-team project), a project for NASA and another one with NSF , a project for the National Guard and several 3D-driven projects.

Spring 2003 Statistics

Number of projects available : 47

Number of teams : 34 in The senior project class

10 in The pre-senior project class

2 in The research support class

Number students enrolled in the senior project classes : 190

Number of sections : 9 combined in three times

Number of departments : 4 (i.e.: CS , IS , IT , HCI )

More ….Course is offered year round

(Fall , Spring and even throughout the two summer sessions from May 27th to August 7th)

In Fall 2003 we expect an enrollment level up to 270 students This implies about 45 teams ready to do new projects

In the new settings..Teams have three options

Regular option : To do a three credit projectEnhanced mode : To do the project over two consecutive

semesters (6 credits)

Advanced Mode : To do the project over three consecutive semesters (9 credits)

List of some of our External List of some of our External Sponsors -1-Sponsors -1-

Large Companies Large Companies • McKesson ,Systems & Technology Solutions, Revenue Cycle Mgmt. Services,

Somerset, NJ 08873• CIT @ Livingston , NJ • Scholastic Books Inc., 26 Glen Oaks Ct., Clifton, NJ 07012• AVIS car rental • Recent contacts with UPS and PSE&G for Summer and Fall 2003 projects

Medium-Size Companies Medium-Size Companies • Professional Resources Corporation (PRC) ,8 Twin Lakes Dr Manalapan, NJ 07726 .• Green Roof Suites , 45 River Road, Suite-301, Flemington, NJ 08822• PF Laboratories Inc., Damon G. Douglas CO.,700 Union Blvd., Totowa, NJ 07512

Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs • Wendy’s Fast Food Restaurants (one branch) , 59 Central Avenue , Union , NJ• MGR Enterprises, 421 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001• Heights Service Station, Inc., 70 Glen Ave., Midland Park, NJ 07432• “ Intellinetix “ Inc.,35 Parchment Drive New Hope, PA 18938 • Duet Designer Consignment Boutiqu, 79 S. Livingston Ave, Livingston, NJ 07039• Pomarico Pharmacy, 239 Old Bergen Road, Jersey city,NJ • A-1 Construction Services, Inc. , 33 Sackett St., Jersey City ,  NJ 07304 .• CyberExtruder• DocuMat

List of some of our External List of some of our External Sponsors -2-Sponsors -2-

Educational Institutions Educational Institutions • Newark Public Library ,(973)-733-3607• Rutgers University –New Brunswick, Cook College,

Department of Food Science• Essex County College 303 university ave (IT

department) Newark, 07102, NJ• Torah Academy of Bergen County ,1600 Queen Anne

Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666.• Global Education Mission ,2184 Kennedy ,Boulevard,

Jersey City,  NJ  07305 Federal Organizations Federal Organizations • NSF (National Science Foundation)NSF (National Science Foundation)• NASANASA

National Guard National Guard

Date Topic What to do?

 What to submit? What to Present?

 Week 1

Sep 3

  Course Introduction and Goals

- Project Ideas

 -Browse ideas

-Add ideas

 

Individual Professional WEBCT Introduction

Individual project suggestion (optional)

Week 2

 

Team Composition (Team Formation and Project

Selection Begins)

- Select an Idea code-Apply for a job code in a

team

-Application for a group

- Reserve a project idea

 None

Week 3 Supervised Team meeting + orientation + discussions

Participate as an active team member.

 None

 None

Week 4 Project Initiation

Submit deliverables and present them

-Project Abstract-Project Team, roles and

responsibilities

First Presentation(Project Abstracts)

5 minutes

None

Week 5 Project Management Discussion

Participate in discussion Progress Report 1Via Webct email

 

Week 6

Oct 8

  Project Management

application

Submit deliverables and present them

Project plan and feasibility:- WBS /Gannt, etc. - Cost –benefit, cost

Second Presentation (Project Plan)

10 minutes

None

Week 7

Oct 15

Requirements engineering discussion

Participate in discussion Progress Report 2Via Webct email

 

Week 8   Requirements Engineering

application

Submit deliverables and present them

Requirements report:Requirements definition,

DFD, DD, process

Third Presentation (Requirements Analysis)

10 minutes

Week 9 Design and prototyping discussion

Participate in discussion Progress Report 3Via Webct email

 None

Week 10  Design and Prototyping Application

 

Submit deliverables and present them

-Requirements Spec.-Architectural models

-User Interface prototype

Forth Presentation(Initial design and

Prototyping)10 minutes

Week 11 Supervised group meetings Participate , contribute ,and revise

Progress Report 4Via Webct

 None

Week 12 Supervised group meetings Participate , contribute ,and revise

Progress Report 5Via Webct email

 None

Week 13 Supervised group meetings Participate, contribute, and revise

-Progress Report 6Via Webct email-Mail Client Eva.

 None

 Week 14

Dec 10

Implementation, testing, installation, and maintenance

Submit deliverables and present them

-Full documentation

-Software Product

 

Final Project Presentation ( 20 minutes)

Position Cod

e

Position Job Description/responsibilities Qualifications

01 Project manager In addition to managing the team, project managers will be responsible for project management deliverables including feasibility study.

Should use project management tool (Microsoft Project Manager) to plan project tasks, allocate and mange resources, assign team members to complete tasks, compile team members' weekly time sheets, report task completion and actual hours worked on tasks, prepare periodic reports on project progress.  Receives extra credit when successful.

In addition to the criteria stated in the previous section, background in software economics, process life cycle models and project management techniques is essential.

02 System Analyst System analysts will be responsible for requirements gathering and documentation

(Problem definition, requirements report, DFD’s, process specifications, data dictionary , etc) and coordinating with other team members.

Experience/ background in requirements analysis, requirements elicitation techniques, and project documentation.

03 Back-end designer

0301 Data Base

Designer

Responsible for designing the backend of the system including data structures, entity relation ship models normalization, SQL, normalization, system structure and other architectural models (repository , client-server, abstract machine model , object-oriented design in UML ,etc.)

Experience/ background in DBMS, CASE tools and modeling techniques in software engineering.

0302 Network Designer

04 Front-end designer Responsible for designing the user interface for users (including GUI components , forms , reports , navigation , etc.

Experience/ background in HCI , cognitive psychology , user interface design, user manuals

05 Programmer Implementing the system at the unit level and system level. Testing and Maintaining the system Writing user manual .

Experience in web programming and other programming such as C++ , Visual Basic , Java, and the like)

Criterion Percentage Explanation

Attendance 10% (100 points) 2% deduction for every absence

1% deduction for each group meeting absence

Class Participation 2.5% (25 points) Through class Discussions (quantifiable)

Online Participation (Class & in-group)

2.5% ( 25 points) Determined through statistical Webct data

4 Documentation Reports

10 % (100 points) First report 1% (10 points)Each other report 3%

4 Presentations 4 % (40 points) 4 x 10= 40 points

6 progress reports 6 % (60 points) 6 x 10= 60 points

Final software product

Instructor evaluation 20 % Final working software solution(Tested and installed, with full

source code) Client Evaluation 20% (200 points)

Final Documentation

report

15 % (150 points) Full project documentation w/ user manuals/supplements

Final presentation 5% (50 points) Present both documentation and software solution

(implementation)

Individual File 5% (50 points) Described earlier

Extra Credits Up to 10% Exceptional efforts , innovation remarkable performance excellent participation .

Total / (Max Total) 1000 points/ (1100 points)

FUTURE DIRECTIONSFUTURE DIRECTIONS

•Enhancing communication channels sponsors

•Establishing a foundation for improving software engineering education nation-wide.

•Interdisciplinary team composition will be cross-departmental.

•Empirical and theoretical research work will emerge and evolve from this work

•Best practices in both academia and industry will be adapted and incorporated.

Thank YouThank You