Capstone Project: Intro, Objectives and Skills

Lesson 1 - Introduction to Capstone Project

• The Capstone Project involves a project proposal, feasibility studies, intellectual property, teamwork, budget, schedule, management, professional communications, planning, design, implementation, deployment, and testing.
• Students are expected to meet strictly enforced milestones, and display initiative.
• The Capstone Project assesses student readiness for graduation.

Objectives of Capstone Project

• Capstone projects integrate knowledge and skills from the entire course.
• Capstone projects reinforce competencies not fully emphasized in fundamental subjects.
• Students define & complete an engineering study/design task to a professional standard within a specified time.
• Project involves a comprehensive report placing the project in context, defining objectives, and describing the work, conclusions, or recommendations.
• Projects bridge the gap between undergraduate studies and the professional future, while demonstrating professional competencies/capabilities.
• Projects also demonstrate initiative, creativity, and pride in completing a difficult task.

Suggested Project Areas

• Projects could include Mobile Applications, Natural Language Processing/Digital Image Processing, Web Applications, Business Applications (.NET/VB/Client-Server), and Intelligent Systems.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Proponents

• Proponents must stay informed of the Capstone Project Guidelines and Policies
• Proponents must stay informed of the schedule of project activities, deliverables, and deadlines posted by the Subject Advisor and Dean.
• Proponents must submit on time all deliverables specified in the documentation, and by the Subject Adviser and Dean.
• Proponents must submit all requirements identified by the thesis defense panel during the defense on time.
• Proponents must submit requirements identified by the Project Adviser during the thesis on time
• Students must schedule regular meetings with the Subject Advisor and Project Advisor to report progress, and raise issues or concerns
• Students must schedule regular meetings with the Dean throughout the thesis project, at least once a semester.

Lesson 2 – Review on SDLC

• SDLC stands for System Development Life Cycle.

Overview of SDLC

• SDLC involves understanding how an information system supports business needs, designing and building the system, and delivering it to users.
• Problems such as late delivery, high costs, and reduced features can happen in system developments
• SDLC involves processes to develop or alter systems throughout their life cycles.
• SDLC is a conceptual model used by analysts to develop information systems. It includes requirements, design, and implementation.

Phases of SDLC

• SDLC is a systematic approach that breaks down the work into phases to implement new or modified Information Systems.
• Planning: obtain approval for project, initiate, assess feasibility, plan, schedule.
• Analysis: understand business needs and processing needs.
• Design: define the solution system based on requirements and analysis decision.
• Implementation: construct, test, train users, install new system.
• Maintenance: keep system healthy and improve.

Planning Phases

• The planning phase is understanding why an IS should be built and determining how the project team will build it.

Project Initialization

• This identifies the system's business value to lower costs or increase revenues.
• Ideas for new systems come as a system request, presenting a business need and how the right system will creates business value.
• The IS department conducts a feasibility study.
  • Technical Feasibility: Can we build it?
  • Economic Feasibility: Will it provide business value?
  • Organizational feasibility: If we build it, will it be used?

Project Management

• The project manager creates a work plan, staffs the project, and puts techniques in place to control and direct the project through the entire SDLC.

Analysis Phase

• The project team investigates current systems, identifies improvement opportunities, and develops a concept for the new system.

Analysis Strategy

• Strategy guides the project team and includes analysis of the current system and problems, and proposes ways to design a new system.

Requirements Gathering

• Information analysis leads to the development of a concept for a new system. A system concept develops a set of business analysis models that describe how the business will operate if the new system were developed.

System Proposal

• A system proposal is presented to project sponsors and key decision makers who decide whether the project should move forward.

Design Phase

• Focuses on how the system operates regarding hardware, software, network infrastructure, user interface, databases, etc.

Design Strategy

• This clarifies if the system will be developed by the company's programmers, outsourced, or if a software package should be purchased.

Architecture Design

• The design describes the required hardware, software, and network infrastructure.
• Interface design specifies how users will navigate the system and the forms/reports for their use.

Database and File Specifications

• The specification defines what data will be stored as well as where it will be stored.

Program Design

• The design defines the programs that need to be written and what each program will do.

Implementation Phase

• The system is built or purchased/ a long/expensive period in the project.

Construction

• The system is built and rigorously tested to make sure it performs correctly.
• Because fixing bugs can be costly, testing is critical, so more time is spent on testing.

Installation

• The process where the old system is turned off and the new system is turned on.
• Includes cutover, parallel conversion, or phased conversion strategies.
• One aspect of conversion is developing a training plan.

Maintenance Phase

• The system is implemented/used by end-users, and developers assess its actual utilization.
• End-users can suggest changes based on their experiences.

Support Plan

• Support includes post-implementation review and ways to identify changes needed for the system.

Planning Phase Steps

• Project Initiation: Identify opportunity, system request.
• Analyze Feasibility: Technical, economic, and organizational feasibility studies
• Develop Work Plan: Time estimation, task identification, a work breakdown structure, PERT chart, Gantt chart, scope management.
• Staff Project: Project staffing, project charter.
• Control and direct project: Use CASE repository, standards, documentation, timeboxing, risk management

Analysis Phase Steps

• Develop analysis strategy.
• Determine business requirements: Interview, JAD session, questionnaire, document analysis, observation.
• Create USE cases.
• Model processes through data flow diagrams.
• Model data through entity relationship.

Design Phase Steps

• Design physical system by determining the design strategy for alternative matrix, and system specifications.
• Design architecture consisting of hardware and software components for software.
• Design interface for interfaces, plus develop prototypes.
• Design programs data flow diagrams and program structure charts.
• Design databases and size estimation.

Implementation Steps

• Construct system via programming and the creation of a software test plan.
• Install system through conversion strategies and user training.

Maintenance Phase Steps

• Maintain system.
• Post-implementation that performs project assessment and audits.

Planning Phase

• Includes Project Identification and Initialization plus determination of Business Requirements.

Project Identification and Initialization

• Key considerations involve the project sponsor, and the project size/scope.

Business Requirement

• Key items include system request, business value and requirements.

Feasibility Study

• Includes technical, economic, and organizational feasibility.

Project Management

• Involves the project manager’s functions, ways to classify the project, the project management process, plus the steps in the project plan.

Requirements Analysis

• Determination via the analysis techniques and gathering techniques, plus the selecting appropriate techniques.

Analysis Phase

• Involves structured analysis as well as structured tools such as DFDs, Context Diagrams, Data Dictionary, etc.
• Key items are Decision Trees, Decision Tables, Structured English, and Pseudocode.

Design Phase

• Includes system design as well as inputs and outputs to said system design. Also, the logical, physical, and architectural design with include detailed ERDs.

Organization System Files

• Types of Files Used: Master, Table, Transaction, Temporary, Mirror, and Log Files Archives. Also, document control is critical during design.

Types of Documentation

• Includes program, operations, user, and system documentation.

Design Aspects

• Design Strategies include the key factor affecting system complexity.
  • Other aspects are the use case, and I/O form designs.

Lesson 3 – RESEARCH ETHICS

Overview

• This lesson is over ethical principles, concerns, issues, and professional ethics.

Ethics

• Ethics focuses on guidelines governing conduct, rooted in well-founded standards of right and wrong.
• At its, Ethics is a system of moral principles impacting decisions in daily life.

Research Principles

• Key research principles include Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, and Justice.

Autonomy

• Researchers need to give participants info so they can agree to or refuse participation.
• Participants need to agree to the study and authorize the researcher to collect info without coercion.

Beneficence

• Research needs to bring some benefit, like contributing to knowledge or service, or the project is unethical.

Non-maleficence

• Non-maleficence says researchers should not harm others or raise risks.
• Every research project will involve some risk that should be considered.

Justice

• Justice means treating people fairly and equally in society. This includes equal treatment.

Informed Consent

• Indviduals should not feel forced to participate in a study via persuasion.
• Researcher agreements outline what can and cannot be done with data collected.
• Any research conflicts of interest should be explicitly declared.

Ethics Importance

• Ethics aid research aims, like knowledge, truth, and error prevention.

What an Ethical Researcher Needs

• An ethical researcher requires honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, loyalty, fairness, caring, respect, law abidingness, commitment to excellence, leadership, morale, accountability.

Writing & Consent

• Stating the participants name, date and stating what will happen to their information is required in agreement to participate
• The heading should include the study title, the organization doing the research and the name of researcher
• Stating that there is no obligation to answer is required for participation, and that they may exit at any time

Lesson 4 – IMPLEMENTATION PHASE

• Also known as system Construction.

Overview

• After the design phase, the systems architect focuses on building the system, documentation, and ensuring it functions as expected.

Construction Process

• Managing the Programming Process requires assigning, coordinating, and scheduling tasks to manage programming efforts.

Assigning Tasks

• Project managers divide programming support needed for construction into numbers and skill levels of programmers.
• Project managers assign program modules to staff, and divides related sets of modules.

Coordinating

• Coordination can be done through weekly meetings.
• One key to coordination is creating and following standards for programming effort.

Schedule Management

• Time estimates must be adjusted as construction proceeds.

Scope Creep

• Scope creep is new requirements added after the design phase.

Risk Assessment

• Risk assessment tracks potential risks and their impacts.

Test Planning

• Creates a detailed document of the strategy, schedules, and resources to validate the quality of the product

Test Plan Components

• An IEEE 829 test plan should analyze the test, design, set objectives, define the criterias for exiting and suspension.
• Key items are planning of recourses, setting up a test environment, and scheduling of projects with testing

Testing Methodologies

• Methodologies create sure the software has the expected look and feels and follows standards

Functional Testing

• Testing applies to the program to the business requirements in place by the design team

Unit Testing

• The first level of testing performed on the separate pieces of code with the testLeft IDE testing tool.

Intergration Testing

• After each unit test integration creates modules that complete a function together

System Testing

• Testing uses a black box method to make sure the standards are met to the design team

Acceptance Testing

• Testing makes sure all business and design goals are met and runs the product through the QA team and Beta Testing

Non-functional Testing

• Incorporates all test types focused on the operational aspects of a pc tested with four sections

Load Testing

• The process of simulating demand

Stress Testing

• Steps further into testing to gauge the design specifications are met

Endurance Testing

• Analysis of the software performance with testing over long periods of time to detect any errors

Spike Testing

• Tests how to handle the stress of high loads of different users

Security Testing

• Performed to make sure there is no chance of data loss or weakness in security

Usability Testing

• A testing method that is easily run by the user and that is designed to be intuitive

Compatibility Testing

• Determines how a pice of software works in diverse environments

Software Test Methodologies

• The methodologies create relative merits and are available for tons of programming
• Methodologies depend on the project, requirements, and the schedule
• Should aim to add more members to the goals of testing with defined deliverables and schedule.
• Transparency is very important in these areas.

Developing Documentation

• Creates all the steps to produce the documentation in the development schedule.
• Most organizations state for documentation to start when the development has been scheduled
• Key considerations are to state how they're build and stored in a binder from all phases

Types of Documentation

• System documentation that helps build and maintains the apps software
• Used mostly to train and maintain the product for the users
• A) The use of quick access documents to gain information quickly
• B) Procedures of documents and how the user runs these parts of the system
• C) Tutorials help create information to use the major components for the customer and new end clients