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CM50280: Capstone project

Follow this link for further information on academic years Academic Year: 2019/0
Further information on owning departmentsOwning Department/School: Department of Computer Science
Further information on credits Credits: 30      [equivalent to 60 CATS credits]
Further information on notional study hours Notional Study Hours: 600
Further information on unit levels Level: Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7)
Further information on teaching periods Period:
Dissertation period
Further information on unit assessment Assessment Summary: CW 100%
Further information on unit assessment Assessment Detail:
  • Capstone Project (CW 100%)
Further information on supplementary assessment Supplementary Assessment:
Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Further information on requisites Requisites: This unit is only available to apprentices on the Level 7 Digital and Technology Solution Specialist Apprenticeship
Before taking this module you must take CM50274
Further information on descriptions Description:

Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this unit, students will be able to:
* demonstrate an understanding of the problems of distribution and scale when developing complex systems
* critically evaluate examples of large scale software failure in business and identify potential solutions to these failures
* demonstrate an understanding of, and critically evaluate, common practices in modern software developer teams
* demonstrate an understanding of, and critically evaluate, modern software engineering processes
* demonstrate an understanding of, and critically evaluate, modern software archetypes and patterns

Skills:
Use of IT (T/F,A), Problem Solving (T/F,A), Communication (T/F,A), Critical thinking (T/F,A).

Content:
Introduction to Problems of Distribution & Scale - Teams, Processes and Systems
Examples of large scale business failure - intrinsic difficulties with software
Modern developer teams - T-shaped skills - some common practice and culture e.g. Pair programming, Mob, Virtual group and Collaborative
Modern software engineering process e.g. Introduction to Architectures, Model driven development i.e. automation of different steps in software process and Dev. Ops.
Advanced software archetypes and patterns i.e. patterns beyond gang of 4 and/or meta patterns e.g. GRASP, SOLID, SOAP/REST/Unwrapped Web Apps, Web apps, Anti Patterns and Service Discovery.
The Project Report Requirements (Excerpt from the Apprenticeship Assessment Plan):

Practical requirements for the Project Report
The EPA organisation approves all project proposals to ensure projects provide potential scope to meet assessment requirements. Agreement of the project proposal will take place prior to commencement of the on-programme project module as must be agreed before the project can start. The process includes first a meeting between the HEI, employer and apprentice (that may be conducted remotely) to explore and agree the scope of the project. The EPA assessor will be present. A project terms of reference is then prepared and used as the basis of defining, setting the scope and deliverables of the project. Once agreed between the HEI, employer, apprentice and EPA assessor then the project terms of reference are signed by each of these stakeholders.

The Project Report is likely to take around 10 days to complete. The apprentice must be given time to draft the Project Report. The Project Report should be presented in the form of a hard copy printed report, but should also be provided in electronic form (e.g. word document). Reasonable adjustments must be made for apprentices who need them (e.g. for those with a disability) in line with normal end-point assessment organisation procedures. Apprentices must submit the report to the end-point assessment organisation within six weeks of the agreed EPA start date (the point at which the apprentice passes the gateway). The end-point assessment organisation will then organise for the report to be passed to their appointed independent assessor. On completion of the Project Report, the apprentice must provide a signed statement to confirm it is her/his own work.

Content of the Project Report
The apprentice will compose a 10,000 (+/- 10%) written essay in which they will demonstrate all the specialism skills and knowledge as set out in Annex A [of the Assessment Plan].
The Project Report should cover the project terms of reference, the apprentice's responsibilities, the action taken by the apprentice (in planning and executing the project) and results and conclusions. The report should be properly laid out as a business style report with an executive summary.
The report must include an annex containing a maximum of 4 pieces of evidence relating to the project. Example evidence may include software developed, spreadsheets, databases, models and analyses etc. This list is not definitive and other evidence sources are permitted.. The annex must include a mapping of the evidence to the knowledge and skills assessed by this assessment method.
A typical Project Report is organised in the following way:
* Executive summary. (This is no more than one side - which summarizes the content of the report. It must be comprehensible to someone who has not read the rest of the report.)
* Introduction. (The scope or hypothesis of the project and terms of reference, setting the scene for the remainder of the report.)
* Background. (A review chapter, describing the background work or research undertaken at the beginning of the project period.)
* Work undertaken: Several chapters describing the work that has been undertaken.
* Outputs. A chapter describing the outputs, deliverables or artefacts that have been produced as a result of the project.
* Further work. (A chapter describing possible ways in which the work could be continued or developed.)
* Conclusions. (A statement of conclusions relating to the work done, and outputs produced to the initial hypothesis and terms of reference.)
* References, annex and appendices.
Further information on programme availabilityProgramme availability:

CM50280 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following programmes:

Department of Computer Science

Notes: