Real-world Results

Hauck’s goal was to challenge students to pull together and apply everything they had learned in their previous courses to a real-world problem. There were no textbooks, no lectures, and no exams… just the project, and a living, breathing client – Vitesse Cycle Shop. Working in independent teams, students competed to create and implement an internal inventory system to locate specific bikes within the company’s facilities. 

According to Vitesse manager, Andre Conton, the company typically has around 400 bikes in inventory. “We definitely know what we have at any given time; the big question is where a specific bike is stored. Space is tight, so some bikes are in boxes, others are under assembly in the warehouse and we’re always working on several in the shop itself, “he explained. “Our current software lacks certain features that would resolve this challenge.” That is why he and shop owner Chris Koos connected with Hauck.

At the beginning of the semester students were given a list of deadlines and deliverables, just like you would have when working on any software development project,” said Hauck. “But how they went about clarifying the client’s specific business problems, managing their work, gathering requirements, planning, scheduling, and designing the system– all of it was up to them,” she explained.  

Students were required to use different modeling tools and techniques to analyze the business and then document the client’s needs. Based on their findings, the student teams then developed the actual working system for the client. Beyond applying specific technical expertise, Hauck stressed to students that quality communication and collaborative skills would be essential for success.

“In business you must be able to effectively present and sell ideas to a client. You’ve also got to work productively with others. Understanding their individual strengths and weaknesses throughout different phases of the project, and targeting specific areas for personal improvement offered some very powerful discoveries for the students,” said Hauck.  

Business Information Systems major, Greg Jopa, definitely learned the importance of clear communication. “While conducting two fact-finding interviews with the client, my group had a hard time structuring our interview questions. Some were too broad, which caused the client to discuss things that were off topic.” Thanks to this project Jopa learned how to craft questions so clients can provide the exact information consultants need.

In September, Matt Swiatkowski begins working as a tax associate at RSM McGladrey in Chicago. For him, knowing other teams were tackling the same challenge was the most motivating aspect of the project. “I believe the competition of getting your system chosen by the client really improved every team's system and made all of us think of better ways to improve our systems to get that extra edge.”

  “I tell my students that this class attempts to mirror what they will experience in real life, including potential midstream changes in the project/business environment and technology. At this point these students know how to create pretty much any type of documentation that could be asked of them,” explained Hauck. They developed feasibility analyses, formal requirements documentation, process models, use cases, data flow diagrams, and upon delivery of the system, a user manual, implementation and testing plan.

Hauck shared that over the course of the semester a number of students, including Swiatkowski, talked about the project during interviews with very successful outcomes. Greg Jopa was another. When he interviewed with on-line travel giant Orbitz, Jopa was able to discuss his team’s work in great detail.

 “When the interviewer asked about other possible solutions I was able to defend my group’s solution and explain why we thought it was the most reasonable approach,” said Jopa. “This class definitely developed my problem solving and trouble shooting skills which are skills employers want.”

The recruiter was clearly impressed. Joba is interning with Orbitz in Chicago this summer, in a pre-production environment working with Linux and trouble-shooting hardware and software issues.

So how did things turn out? “I was definitely impressed with the teams’ creativity in terms of what they came up with for their system and the actual design of it.  I was also impressed with some teams’ ability to “kick it up a notch” in terms of their quality of their joint performance,” said Hauck.

Conton agreed. “Each team had very professional presentations, smart designs and great supporting documentation. Now if I could just get a hybrid of all their systems, that would be the perfect ending!”

For Hauck, the reward is knowing her students have first-hand experience working on a real software development project as part of a team facing specific deadlines,” added Hauck. “It doesn’t get much more relevant than that!”