2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Oct 30, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

MSCS 3999 - Capstone

The course is structured as a consulting experience, with specific instructions, primarily during the first few weeks of the term on interpersonal aspects of the interaction of the Consultant and his/her Client and on the process of ensuring that the Consultant is working on the “right problem” commonly known as requirements gathering.

The intent of the course structure is to give the student the experience of applying the knowledge acquired in the classroom courses of the MSCS Program, along with the experience they bring, and apply the to a real world problem on behalf of a real client with an actual need. Students be assigned client and project from a list of organizations this course has obtained. Working in teams of 2-4, students will receive a request from a client, develop a Statements of Requirements, develop a simplified contract with the client, research possible solutions develop a reference architecture linking the clients existing system or process with the new or replacement capability and make a recommendation in addition to providing the appropriate supporting documentation.

If this process is successful, the students will gain not only the experience but also take away a meaningful detail for their resume and a Client who could provide a future reference.

Students should take the Capstone course near the end of their graduate program (at least after two full semesters in the program). To register, students must seek permission from their academic advisor.

Some meetings required

Prerequisites: MSCS 3050 - Software Engineering

MSCS 3055 - Design and Analysis of Algorithms

MSCS 3070 - Survey of Programming Languages

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually