SE390outline-v1

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1 SE390 – SE Capstone Design Project Planning, Fall 2023 Version history: • Version 1, Sep. 6, 2023 Instructor: Krzysztof Czarnecki The goal of se390 is to define and begin your Capstone Design Project. se390 Calendar Description: Students undertake a substantial customer-driven group project as part of the se390/490/491 design-project sequence covering all major phases of the software- engineering lifecycle. Lectures describe expectations and project-planning fundamentals. Students form groups, decide on a project concept, complete a project-approval process, develop high-level requirements for the project, perform a risk assessment, develop a test plan, and complete a first-iteration prototype. Social, legal, and economic factors are considered. NOTE: “Customer-driven” is to be interpreted broadly as having clearly-identified team-external stakeholders benefiting from the project results. Examples include a contracting-style customer, new product users, advance technology users, or a research community. Capstone Design Project The intended learning objectives of the Capstone courses are, among others (see SE Capstone Handbook, §1, referenced in “Online course resources” for more detail ): • Project selection: – To identify problems worth solving – To identify personal tastes and preferences – To make strategic decisions – To be proud of your project • Teamwork: – To implement effective teamwork strategies – To effectively plan and estimate project work – To identify the strengths, weaknesses, and styles of co-workers – To be proud of your team • Results: – To create positive change in the world – To think big thoughts (i.e., to integrate and apply what you have learned in all of your other courses on a large team project) – To apply professional practices – To select and apply appropriate abstractions in communicating complex projects The Capstone Design Project falls into one of the following categories (see SE Capstone Handbook, §2.2) : 1. Contribute to an existing Free/Open-Source Software , 2. Collaborate with a professor to accomplishing publishable scientific Research results,

2 3. Develop, as a Consultant , some customer software for a specific external partner, 4. Develop a New Product for a clearly identified user group, 5. Create an Advanced Technology that combines knowledge from multiple technical elective courses and addresses an important and difficult problem (but does not necessarily have a business case component the way a new product does) The criteria used to evaluate and grade your project at symposium time depend on the category and are specified in the SE Capstone Handbook, §14 . These grading rubrics are important to consider during project topic selection in se390. For example, achieving grade A+ in the New Project categories requires “Thousands of light users or hundreds of heavy users or positive mention in mainstream/industry press or winning a reputable startup pitch competition” (see §14.2.1 ). Note to students interested in grad school : Some of you may be considering grad school after graduation. A capstone project in the Research category, if successful, that is, if it results in a scientific publication, will give you an edge as an applicant. The collaborating professor would also be an ideal choice to write a reference letter. If creating a capstone team for a Research project turns out too difficult, you should consider doing an Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA). I have seen may cases of students trying to get reference letters for grad school in their final term without any research experience. Course instructors (including myself) usually do not know about you enough to write a meaningful reference letter. You need to plan ahead to have letter writers who can talk about your research abilities, which can be professors working with you as advisors for a capstone project in Research category or as URA supervisors. Course Objectives The se390 course objectives are same as those listed for the Capstone project, with the focus on identifying a problem worth solving, establishing an effective project team and development practices, and accomplishing 15-20% of the project by the end of the term. To aid these goals, the course gives the students an opportunity to apply concepts and methods in strategic positioning, requirements engineering, software design, user-centric design, research literature study, project management, teamwork, and intellectual property management. It also gives an opportunity to try out more than one topic and project category, work as part of different teams to experience different team dynamics, and learn what a team can accomplish within a project iteration. Course Structure In order to accomplish the objectives, the course is structured into three iterations, allowing and encouraging switching topic and team compositions between the iterations. You don’t have to switch if you feel strongly that you have the right project idea and an effective team. Consider that switching will likely give you more experience and opportunity to arrive at a strong project idea and team. The iterations are referred to as Mini-Project 1,2,3 and each consecutive iteration is longer than the previous one. Mini-Project 1 is just three weeks long, and its short duration aids receiving

3 early feedback and getting the project and team structure into place quickly. Mini-Project 2 is four weeks long, and Mini-Project 3 is four-and-a-half weeks long. It is not necessary and also not very likely that the idea you select for Mini-Project 1 will be the same as what you will present on symposium day. Since Mini-Project 1 is just three weeks, pick a project idea that will allow you to learn about specific domain or technology you find interesting and also accomplish some meaningful results by the end of the iteration. The results can have different forms, including a software prototype, an evaluation of a user interface mock-up, or a literature review. The main objective of the iteration is to start working on a problem as a team and learn what you can accomplish within the three weeks. Throughout the iteration, your team should continue brainstorming and evaluating the capstone project ideas, which you will likely eventually start working on in Mini-Project 2 or 3. Each iteration ends with a project review by the instructor. Most of the grade is awarded based on the project results and the professionalism and effectiveness of the team, with each consecutive iteration being worth a higher percentage of the final grade than the previous one. Team Size and Composition A standard team for the SE capstone has four members who are SE students in the same cohort. Under special circumstances, teams can also have more, that is, five or six members, or fewer, that is, three members. • Two students is not considered a workable team. • A team of three is likely the result of a team member leaving a team of four. While a project can continue with three members, starting with four rather than three members provides a safety margin. • Teams can be formed also with students from other engineering programs working on their 4-th Year Design Projects; however, the diverging schedules may cause complications that should be identified and mitigated when forming such a mixed team. Students from other programs are normally expected to participate in the deliverable review meetings of their team with the instructor, but this is not mandatory given that they have a different schedule. • An exchange student taking se390 should join an existing team of four SE students (i.e., not a team that would already have another exchange student) to form a team of five in anticipation of the team continuing with the four SE students in the future. • SE students who are on exchange and wish to take this course will likely have to rely on Piazza to find a team. They are expected to coordinate with the rest of their team regarding meeting schedule and remote interaction to contribute to the team project. Their contributions will be judged similarly to the contributions by students on campus. • Students who plan to go for a double coop, i.e., a back-to-back coop terms in Winter and Spring, should consider forming a 3+3 team, with three members going on a double coop and the other three students going on a single coop in Winter. That way the project can continue with at least three members in se490 in Spring and Fall. The shifts from Mini-Project 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 provide an opportunity to change the team composition. Some members may decide to switch teams, and some teams may disband.

4 Textbook The official textbook for this course is “SE Capstone Design Project Handbook” by Prof. Derek Rayside (available from the course website, see below ). The main body of the textbook contains material on concepts, methods, and past experience that you will work through and apply to your project, as outlined in the course schedule below. Online course resources: The course uses 1. Course website for the handbook and past project abstracts and videos https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~se_capstone/ ; 2. Piazza for daily communication; 3. Gitlab repo for team abstracts, presentation slides, and peer reviews (use your UW credentials): https://git.uwaterloo.ca/secapstone/se2025-390 NOTE: Everyone in the class has a Developer status in this repo. This will maximize sharing of ideas and collaboration, which is intended. It also means that you need to take care not to inadvertently delete someone else’s work. Further, you are not allowed to share information about another team’s project outside of this class. 4. LEARN to post recordings of guest speaker sessions and this course outline. Contacting the instructor: Use Piazza. If the topic is relevant to your peers, make a general posting. Otherwise use a private message. You’ll find it here: https://piazza.com/uwaterloo.ca/fall2023/se390 Interaction with the Instructor, team work, and additional guest sessions and recordings The focus of the course is on your team work and the individual interaction between your team and the instructor for guidance, feedback, and evaluation, rather than meetings in class setting. Thus, most of the time you invest in this course will be the project teamwork. The first two lecture slots will be in-person and will offer an opportunity to network to form teams and ask the instructor questions in person. The lecture slot is scheduled on Thursdays, 12:30 pm – 6:20 pm, in MC 4020. There are four mandatory online meetings between each team and the instructor: Mini-Project 1, 2, and 3 reviews, and one status “check-in” meeting in the middle of Mini-Project 1; optional “check-in” meetings in the middle of Mini-Projects 2 and 3 and additional meetings can be requested with the instructor as needed. Additionally, we will have selected guest speakers, who will present in some of the lecture slots. The guest speakers will include SE capstone alumni and other invited experts, on topics such as

5 identifying important problems, effective teamwork, and intellectual property management. The sessions and their modality (in-person or synchronous online) will be announced on Piazza, and you are encouraged to participate in them, so that you can ask questions to the guest speakers. The sessions will also be recorded for offline viewing. Each student will review several other Mini-Projects 2, which will give generate useful peer feedback (graded) and insight what other teams are working on. Finally, some of the course concepts will be delivered as video recordings for offline viewing via Learn and YouTube and reading. This includes assigned viewing of video recordings from past SE Symposia and other events, and assigned reading of selected handbook chapters, as they become relevant to the project. Schedule The following table gives an approximate distribution of the work activities over the course of the term. Note that dates of guest lectures may need to move until confirmed with the guest speakers. As you start working on Mini-Project 1, you should read handbook sections that will be relevant to your project activities, and in particular the sections on Prototyping (see Handbook §5.4 ), Requirements ( §7 ), Design ( §8 ), User-Centered Design ( §10 and §11 ), and Literature Review ( § 6.8), and plan to finish the reading in week 3. Plan your effort for each week based on the schedule given in the table. Keep a time log of your project activities and compare it with the your plan (learning to keep a time log is an important productivity skill, see § 5.3). Be prepared to summarize the use of your time during check-ins with the instructor and project reviews. In this schedule, each week starts on Thu and ends on Wed. Week Activities for the week Instructions Deliverables (see the next table for deadlines and details) w1 (Sep 7) Setup Mini- Project 1 team and topic 1. Establish project team (see §2.4); use the in- person class to network; to find additional members after the class, post on Piazza 2. Establish regular team meetings (e.g., semi- weekly scrum + ad hoc meetings), a communication platform 1. Mini-Project 1 abstract in team subdir on in the course gitlab according to instructions 2. Be prepared to discuss with the instructor your established meeting schedule, the

6 (e.g., MS Teams, slack), and a project repository (e.g., github or gitlab) 3. Watch the SE alumni panel with their advice of how to run a successful capstone project (on LEARN) 4. Brainstorm project topics (see §2, §2.1 - §2.5, §4, §6.3-4, §6.6 for brainstorming advice); try at least two brainstorming techniques from §4 (e.g., Crazy 8s; think / pair /share; and six thinking hats) 5. Add Mini-Project 1 team subdir and abstract to course gitlab brainstorming techniques you’ve applied, and the key insights from the SE alumni panel w2 (Sep 14) Work on Mini- Project 1; Course concepts: success criteria, risk management, and related- work research; 1. Continue working on Mini-Project 1 2. Explore abstracts of past projects and watch past symposium videos (see course website); 3. Watch the guest lecture by Prof. Larry Smith with advice on how to select an impactful project idea (on LERAN) 4. Establish project success metrics for your project (see §5.2) 5. Brainstorm project risks and plan mitigation strategies (see §6.5) 6. Sign-up for the c heck-in meeting with the instructor 1. Be prepared to discuss the past symposium videos you watched and how your idea relates to any similar past capstone projects, but also related work or competitors in the field; 2. Be prepared to discuss your success metrics and the main risks for your project and how you plan to mitigate them w3 (Sep 21) Work on Mini- Project 1; 1. Continue working on Mini-Project 1 2. Read about Prototyping (see §5.4 ), Requirements 1. Check-in meeting with the instructor (start of this week)

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