Transcript BUILDING COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS EFFECTIVELY

BUILDING
COMMUNITY SERVICE
PROJECTS
EFFECTIVELY
Lisa MacLean and Michael Werner
[email protected], [email protected]
Department of Computer Science and Systems
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Boston, MA 02115
Bulding Community Service Projects Effectively
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Why Community Projects
 May satisfy community service requirements
for graduation
 Students become aware of the social and
ethical implications of computing
 Real projects are more demanding than toy
projects – The students learn more
 Students are highly motivated
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Some Recent Projects
 St. Francis House – A homeless shelter needed a
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database system to track the delivery of services.
The Nelson Mandela Training Center - An online
application process for students seeking training
Parker Hill/Fenway ABCD - A database of available
day care slots.
New England Home for Little Wanderers - A webenabled application for sponsoring Christmas gifts
Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts - A
registration system for courses and other services
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Difficulties and Constraints
 Semesters are too short
 Students are inexperienced
 Project schedules conflict with coop
Fall
Spring Summer
Sophomores
Coop?
Juniors
Seniors
Coop
Coop
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 Community-based organization
 Serves African Americans and other residents
of color
 Provides job training and professional skills
 Advocacy and public policy
 Funded by donations, foundations,
government entities
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ULEM’s Software Need
 Enroll students into training courses
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On-Line Applications
Internal review and approval
 Tracking attendance and progress
 Provide reporting internally and to funding
agencies
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Initial Scope
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EPST (Employment and Professional Skills
Training Program)
SCSP (Seniors in Community Service
Program)
Parent Involvement Program
Youth Program
Technology Training Program
Volunteer Program
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Actors
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Public – Browse courses on-line and request
admission.
Front-Line Staff – Help walk-ins fill out request
forms.
Coordinators – Create courses, approve
enrollment, and record attendance and progress.
Managers – Report to funding sources on services
delivered.
Database Administrators – Maintain database
integrity
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Project Initiation (Spring ’03)
Database Class
• Sophomores
• Back-end design
• Identify data elements
• Prepare database
schema
• Class divided into 6
groups
• Each group assigned to
one ULEM program
• Running example
driving the lectures
Software Design Class
• Seniors
• Front-end design
• HTML screens
• Server-side scripting
• Business logic
• Single group
• Other groups did
unrelated projects
• Not used much in the
lectures
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Collaboration and Project Management
 Back-end team sent representatives to meet
with the client
 Front-end team met separately with client
 Professors plus a few students acted as
liaisons
 Front-end was held up waiting for the
database design
 Little over-all project management
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Database Explosion
 Back-end produced 6 database designs for
the 6 programs
 Massive data integration problem (200 tables)
 Front-end team mocked up a database
design so they could test their scripts
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Stored Procedures
 Instituted by back-end teams
 Provided good security
 Front-end could call stored procedures
without needing to know their implementation
 Back-end was free to modify database design
while maintaining the procedures
 Lessened the need for coordinating front and
back ends
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Summer and Fall ‘03
 One Senior continued the project
 Reduced to a single ULEM program
 Wrote ASP scripts using stored procedures
(but these were unreliable)
 Different Senior continued in the Fall
 Massive database and stored procedure
redesign
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Spring ‘04
 New front-end team constituted
 Rewrote ASP scripts into PHP
 Prototype completed and installed on ULEM’s
computers
 ULEM staff start providing feedback and bug
reports
 BUT – ULUM had switched to Active
Directory
 Login procedures needed to be rewritten
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Project Completion – Summer ‘04
 One Senior completed the project
 Most bugs addressed
 Authentication conformed to active directory.
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Risk Factors Identified
 Communication can break down
 The development team may lack needed skills.
 Projects may fail to progress in a timely fashion.
 Participants may have different goals and time
schedules.
 Integrating work done by separate groups is
problematic.
 If projects drag, clients are likely to change their
requirements.
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Better Next time
 The client contract
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Developer’s commitment and time line
Client’s commitment and time line
Clear requirements specification
 Student preparation
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Formal course in project management
Course in WWW applications including serverside scripting
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Project Management
Estimating costs and benefits
 Work breakdown into phases and tasks
 Assigning personnel to tasks
 Coordinating
 Assessing risks
 Managing resources
 Monitoring progress
 Managing artifacts
 Tracking costs and resources
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Nonprofits share common traits
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Provide services free or at reduced cost.
Employ both paid staff members and volunteers.
Funded by government agencies, foundations and
contributors.
Need to report on how funds are used.
Need to manage day-to-day operations such as
scheduling classes and appointments
Require different levels of access for different users
Prefer common web interfaces for use internally by
the staff, and externally by contributors, clients and
the public.
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Application Frameworks
 Reusable partial application
 Provides core functionality to support
nonprofits
 Customizable to meet specific requirements
 Under development at Wentworth
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Layered Architecture
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Implementation Languages
 SQL –Database back-end and building stored
procedures.
 PHP –Server-side programming. PHP has
strong database interfaces.
 HTML –Client and server side web
programming.
 Javascript –Client-side checking of requests
prior to submission.
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Future Directions
 Service learning is valuable
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Students gain experience with real projects
Give-back to the community
 New - Center for Service learning
 Better understanding of how to do it
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Student and faculty preparation
Project management
Application frameworks
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Questions?
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