A Cloud-based Mobile System to Improve Project Management Skills in Software Engineering Capstone Courses

Abstract

Capstone project-based courses offer a favorable environment for the development of student skills through an approach incorporating theoretical and practical components. However, it is often difficult to successfully coordinate between students, stakeholders and the academic team. The absence of suit-able tools for addressing this issue, along with time constraints, often prevents students from attaining the expected course outcomes. This raises the question: How can we improve project management skills in computing majors through the use of technology-enhanced learning environments? This paper presents a cloud-based mobile system for supporting project management under a frame-work of best practices in software engineering capstone courses. The Kanban approach was used as a core of the proposed system. Kanban boards are very popular in the software industry today. It has been empirically shown that they pro-vide increased motivation and project activity control due to their inherent simplicity. This helps the students and academic team be aware of the project context as it aids in preventing ambiguities, flaws or uncertainties in the development of software artifacts.