Industrial experience project
D Ceddia and R Dorling
12 points * 2 hours per week * First/Second semester * Peninsula * Prerequisites: CFR2126, CFR2128 and CFR2201 * Prohibitions: CFR3030, COT3500, GCO3819, SFT3500, SYS2500, SYS3030, SYS3500
Students will have the opportunity to experience working in a small project team of approximately five students to develop a computerised information system in response to a client's needs, and to plan, monitor and control the course of the project and bring it to a successful conclusion. Students will undertake the project, under the direction of a staff supervisor who will meet with them on a weekly basis to review progress and provide guidance. Each team is expected to follow well defined guidelines in regard to work practices, project management, quality assurance techniques and the form of what is produced during the project. The team, under the guidance of the supervisor, will be responsible for defining the individual roles and responsibilities of each member. Although some variation in the nature of each project is possible, the team will generally be required to scope and estimate the size of the project; analyse and document user requirements; design a system to meet the client's needs; construct, test and document the designed system and implement it successfully in the client organisation. A seminar/workshop program will be run on a weekly basis covering a range of topics relevant to the work of the project teams. Where appropriate, industry experts will participate in this program to ensure that students are aware of current industry practice. Topics covered will include project management techniques, group management, team dynamics, project scoping and estimation techniques, presentation and interview techniques, project standards, software component libraries, methods to achieve code re-use, unit and system testing, version control, configuration management, and computing system implementation issues.
Assessment
The assessment will be an ungraded pass based on the group work, with students being required to satisfactorily pass two checkpoints per semester. At each of these checkpoints students will be required to conduct a presentation with a maximum duration of 30 minutes, outlining their progress to date to a review panel which will include the group supervisor. The panel will provide feedback on the adequacy of the work to date and the effectiveness of the group's implementation of the concepts covered in the seminar/workshop program. Students may be required to revise and resubmit work before being allowed to proceed. At the first checkpoint students will be required to produce a feasibility report outlining the scope and nature of the project, with estimates of the resources required. At the last checkpoint students will be required to demonstrate their completed system.
Recommended texts
Weiss J W and Wysocki R K 5-phase project management Addison-Wesley, 1992