Software Engineering Class Projects

Posted bysandro 4 Comments on Software Engineering Class Projects

I’m still debating the best project for this semester’s class project. We’re probably going to have 10-12 people per team, with two competing teams.

Some of my current thoughts:

  • Cross-Platform Synchronizing Chore management system
  • Software Tool/Environment for teaching children to program

The chore management system is needed around our house, and we have a group of external customers (my family). We have used ChoreMonster in the past, but they started charging subscription fees, and I think that’s completely ridiculous for the functionality.

A tool for teaching programming would be more widely used, but is a much harder, less tractable problem. On the other hand, a campus renown for its teaching program might be just the place for such a project (not that the last semester’s class used those resources).

4 replies on “Software Engineering Class Projects”

  1. If I had a vote, I’d go with the chore management system. It isn’t just that it’s a more tractable problem (with a real customer). The longer I write software for a living, the more apparent it becomes that engineers *need* to have skills in eliciting and understanding requirements from real customers. Working in organizations that have people in business analyst and/or project management roles does not always mean that the requirements you get from them will be enough to design and build the right system.

    1. Sadly, the Chore Manager project didn’t make the students’ cut of projects they were interested in. Here’s the current breakdown:

      1. Secure Chat – improve/extend the existing ChatSecure Android client
      2. Horse Ranch Manager – software to track and manage horses on a local horse ranch (based on real needs people associated with the students)
      3. E-Voting – improve/extend existing Civitas e-voting system
      4. Game to Teach programming – improve/extend/create based on CodeCombat, RubyWarrior, or others…
      5. Interactive IDE – IDE for beginning programmers based on ideas from Bret Victor

  2. If I had a vote, I’d go with the chore management system. It isn’t just that it’s a more tractable problem (with a real customer). The longer I write software for a living, the more apparent it becomes that engineers *need* to have skills in eliciting and understanding requirements from real customers. Working in organizations that have people in business analyst and/or project management roles does not always mean that the requirements you get from them will be enough to design and build the right system.

    1. Sadly, the Chore Manager project didn’t make the students’ cut of projects they were interested in. Here’s the current breakdown:

      1. Secure Chat – improve/extend the existing ChatSecure Android client
      2. Horse Ranch Manager – software to track and manage horses on a local horse ranch (based on real needs people associated with the students)
      3. E-Voting – improve/extend existing Civitas e-voting system
      4. Game to Teach programming – improve/extend/create based on CodeCombat, RubyWarrior, or others…
      5. Interactive IDE – IDE for beginning programmers based on ideas from Bret Victor

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