Unit information: Summer Team Project in 2021/22

Unit name	Summer Team Project
Unit code	COMSM0108
Credit points	60
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Dr. Bennett
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	Successful completion of all the MSc in Computer Science units in Teaching Block 1 and Teaching Block 2.
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Computer Science
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is the expected summer project unit for all students taking the MSc in Computer Science. The aim of the unit is to give teams of students the opportunity to undertake an advanced group project, typically involving a significant amount of software engineering, building upon the experience gained from Overview of Software Engineering.

Teams are expected to undertake a substantial project, with the number of team members aligning with the project delivery requirements, with numbers typically between 4-6 students. These can be chosen from a list of recommended projects or, in conjunction with the Unit Director, proposed by students. Collaborative projects with organisations or individuals within or outside of the University are strongly encouraged, including industry, public sector bodies, research groups or similar.

Projects will be assigned a Project Advisor who will provide guidance on the direction of the project, especially that relating to academic standard, and teams are encouraged to co-opt academics with relevant expertise in technical advisory roles. Regular progress reviews should be undertaken by the student team in collaboration with the Project Advisor.

Projects will typically involve the design, development and evaluation of a prototype system or application. Teams are expected to take a professional approach to the project, developing a clear project plan, with milestones and deliverables, making use of appropriate tools for project management and version control, for example, and assigning roles and responsibilities to team members according to capabilities and expertise.

All team members are expected to engage fully with the project according to their role and this element will form part of the assessment.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit students will be able to do the following, either within a group setting

or individually, as appropriate:

1. apply project management techniques to plan and organise the development of a substantial software engineering project;
2. produce a system design which reflects the requirements of all system stakeholders;
3. successfully apply software engineering practices and processes in the development of system components;
4. evaluate the extent to which outcomes of the project conform to system specifications and fulfil the needs of stakeholders.

Teaching Information

Once allocated, teams will be self-managing, with regular reviews of progress.

Assessment Information

100% coursework, consisting of the following:

• 50% group report, providing details of the project motivation, design, implementation and evaluation.
• 10% final group presentation, showcasing and demonstrating the outcomes of the project, and involving contributions from all team members.
• 30% individual report, providing descriptions of and reflections on the student’s own contribution to the project and their personal view of the project, its outcomes and future work.
• 10% individual engagement assessment, based on a student’s contribution to regular team update presentations to the academic supervisor.

Individual students will be expected to demonstrate full engagement with the project and contribute at a level comparable to that expected for an individual project. The number of students in a team will reflect the workload and effort required to deliver the project. Teams will be expected to provide regular presentations to the academic supervisor detailing progress and individual contributions. An indication of the relative contribution of each team member will be agreed by the team at the end of the project and this will be used to inform individual marks where appropriate.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. COMSM0108).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.