SA Capstone Student Guide

Introduction

The Systems Analyst's Capstone courses provide an opportunity for Systems Analyst students to apply all of the skills that they have acquired towards a real world software development project. These courses also serve as an excellent showcase of the talents and abilities of the Systems Analyst students.

Students have the opportunity to choose a project, analyze requirements, design a solution, plan their work and do some prototyping in the first Capstone course (SYST36367 - SA Capstone Requirements and Design Course (Semester 5)). During the second Capstone course (INFO30001 - SA Capstone Project (Semester 6)) students implement, test, deploy and demonstrate their final products. Together the Capstone courses provide students with experience in all phases of the Software Development Lifecycle including requirements gathering, design, project planning, development, testing and deployment.

These courses are of vital importance to the Systems Analyst program as they provide students with an opportunity to work as part of a team on a real world development project just prior to their graduation. They are designed to simulate the working conditions that most of students are about to experience in industry. All students are also required to present their products to the Faculty which helps students to enhance their presentation skills.

For further details regarding these courses refer to the Course Outlines on Sheridan’s website.

All students are expected to have carefully reviewed this document as it helps to explain the requirements, tools, expectations and other important information for these courses!

Class Schedules and Deliverables

The SYST36367 Class Plan and the INFO30001 Class Plan pages provide comprehensive information for the SYST36367 and INFO30001 courses respectively including:

  • Detailed agenda (including deliverables) for each week of class
  • Links to documents which describe the detailed requirements and rubrics for each deliverable in the course
  • Sample deliverables from past projects
  • Links to the meeting schedules for each group

Meetings and Presentations

Students are expected to:

  • Arrive on time and prepared for all meetings with Capstone Faculty.
  • Thoroughly test all demonstrations before meeting with Faculty and be aware of any significant flaws in the system.
  • Have backup plans and systems in the event of a computer, network or component failure
  • Provide advance notice where possible of absences, or other circumstances that may jeopardize project deliverables and deadlines
  • Review and understand deliverable rubrics before the corresponding deliverable dates
  • Conduct themselves in a professional manner as though they are participating in a “real” corporate business meeting with managers and customers!
  • Describe the problem and system in each presentation as if they are speaking to the customer for the first time.

Capstone Competition

After careful review of the final deliverables, several groups are selected by the Capstone Faculty to compete at the annual Capstone Competition for the program. At the competition, the students have an opportunity to present their products to a panel of industry experts who are tasked with evaluating and selecting the three winning projects. Participation in the Capstone Competition is a very rewarding experience which provides many benefits to students including:

  • Opportunity to present their project to an audience of industry experts
  • Opportunity to receive constructive feedback about their project
  • Opportunity to learn about common industry concerns and practices
  • Opportunity to network with the industry panel
  • Opportunity to see and learn from other Capstone groups
  • Opportunity to compete for cash prizes
  • Opportunity to build up their resumes
  • Provides an excellent demonstration of abilities and a great discussion point during interviews
  • A fun night with free food and refreshments with fellow students, Faculty and industry experts

Many past students have made useful industry contracts during the competition and some have even landed jobs immediately based on their performance!

Group Difficulties

Unfortunately, a few past Capstone Groups have struggled to work together effectively. Typically, problems arise when one or more group members do not contribute enough to the project. In the event that your group encounters difficulties working together we recommend the following actions:

  • Inform Capstone Faculty immediately about the problem
  • Ask all group members to honestly and confidentially complete a Peer Evaluation Form for the affected Deliverable(s) and submit them individually and confidentially to Faculty
  • Conduct a group meeting and calmly discuss any group concerns
  • Give the group member(s) another chance to address the issue(s)
  • Arrange a meeting with Faculty to discuss various options if the situation does not improve

Capstone Tools

SLATE

SLATE will be used in this course for:

  • Distributing Grades
  • Posting Course and Scheduling Announcements
  • Submitting Course Deliverables

Students are responsible for checking SLATE regularly (daily) for announcements and potential scheduling changes.

Virtual Machines

The Capstone Virtual Machines will be used by the groups in this course to:

  • Deploy and test projects prior to all deliverables
  • Demonstrate deliverables to Faculty where possible (note that a backup system should be ready in the event of a Virtual Machine problem)
  • Leave a working copy of all deliverables including executables for Faculty to test at any time after the deliverable dates in the corresponding “Project Deliverables-Semester06\Deliverable0x” folder
  • Backup project milestones (note another backup system should also be used)

The following information will be required to connect to your group’s Virtual Machine:

  • IP Address: 142.55.49.1XX
  • Domain: csYY.sheridanc.on.ca
  • User Name: As supplied by IT
  • Initial Password: As supplied by IT

Where:

  • XX represents your Capstone group number which is numbered from 01 to 99
  • YY represents your Capstone group number which is numbered from 1 to 99

Note: To make support requests for your Capstone Virtual Machine complete this IT form.

Version Control and Backups

Students are responsible for ensuring that:

  • All project milestones and deliverables are backed up on another system in the event of loss of data from the Virtual Machine or a group member’s computer.
  • All demonstrations are backed up and ready to execute on another system in the event of loss of data or malfunction of the Virtual Machine before or during the time of demonstration

Students are also expected to utilize Version Control software to help them in organizing and tracking their development efforts. To assist students with using Version Control, a Sheridan SVN server has been provided with an account for each group. The following information will be required for connecting to the Sheridan SVN server:

  • URL: aces-svn.sheridanc.on.ca/svn/capXX/
  • Username: As supplied by IT
  • Initial Password: As supplied by IT

Where: XX represents your Capstone group number. TortoiseSVN is a highly recommended Windows client interface to SVN.

Online Project Hosting

A number of reputable sites provide free project hosting for open source and/or small projects. This project hosting normally includes version control, issue tracking, wikis and other collaboration tools. Project hosting normally does NOT include site hosting (Apache, ASP.NET, etc.)! Here are a few large sites that provide free online project hosting:

  • Bitbucket provides support for private version control, issue tracking and a project Wiki. It is free for groups of 5 or less and allows both Git and Mercurial repositories.
  • GitHub provides free version control, issue tracking and project management for open source projects. Paid private plans are also available here.
  • Google Project Hosting provides free version control, issue tracking and wiki for open source projects.
  • Microsoft's Team Foundation Service provides support for private version control, issue tracking, collaboration, unit testing, agile planning and more! It is free for all groups of 5 or less.

Project Tracking Software

It is highly recommended that groups use a tracking system and tracking software to improve group collaboration and monitor progress on the various tasks, bugs and issues associated with the project. Two excellent applications specifically designed for this purpose are:

  • Trello – powerful, visual, easy to use, free portal with customized iOS and Android apps
  • Pivotal Tracker – even more powerful portal with customized iOS app but more difficult to use

Site Hosting

In addition to the Sheridan Virtual Machines there are many powerful and low cost web site and database hosts available on the internet. A suitable site host can provide an excellent backup or primary system for demonstrations and in some cases provide more flexibility than the Sheridan Virtual Machines. AppHarbor provides free ASP.NET hosting. This link provides reviews and links to more free ASP.NET hosts.

Some past groups have used one of their home systems to host their sites in order to provide maximum flexibility.

Recommendations

To be successful, it is strongly recommended that students do the following:

  • Read this document and the referenced documents thoroughly
  • Start working diligently on the project right from the start and don’t leave it all to the end
  • Read the deliverable instructions and rubrics before each deadline to ensure that they understand how they will be evaluated
  • Check the SLATE calendar regularly (daily) for announcements, emails, meeting time and room changes
  • Have a main system and a backup system ready to go for each demonstration
  • Identify and address technical and group challenges early
  • Backup their work
  • Use Version Control software to organize and manage development efforts
  • Spend time to develop and maintain a solid Project Plan
  • Use Project Tracking software extensively to improve group collaboration and project tracking
  • Rehearse each presentation in order to maximize the available time

Helpful Links

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