Work in progress - software engineering capstone project with Rational Unified Process® (RUP)

Abstract

Any credible software engineering program must thrive to connect college education with the realities of commercial software development. In most cases, the study of software processes takes place in the lecture halls but it is not practiced in student projects. Students graduate into the commercial world driven by software and business processes without any hands-on experience and thus without an in-depth understanding of the significance of a process to the industrial setting. In order to close this gap, we have chosen to use a commercial grade process framework: Rational Unified Processreg (RUP) for the backbone of our newly introduced software engineering capstone project. The capstone project is required for all students and offered through the senior year of our ABET-accredited BS in computer science program. In our opinion, this will prepare students better for the competitive job market.