Organization of Team Project group of courses for Applied Computer Science in the academic year 2024/25
Introductory information Team Project is a group of courses (P + S, with a leading course project; 120 hours project + 15 hours seminar).
Submission of topics and organization of teams: Teams of 4 students; in exceptional cases, 3 or 5 students (requires the permission of the instructor and approval of the field of study supervisor – dr inż. Elżbieta Kukla). The class group consists of 4 teams, in exceptional cases, 3 or 5. At least two teachers lead the class group – each has 1-2 teams under his/her supervision (optimally 2); the teachers of the same class group act as auxiliary supervisors for the teams under the supervision of other teachers. A teacher working as an assistant may supervise at most one team; other people – at most two teams. Course enrollment will be handled administratively based on the declaration submitted.
Objectives of Team Project The Team Project is a subject that aims to summarize the knowledge and skills acquired during engineering studies. Students work in small teams on complex IT projects, often carried out for real business clients. Team Project emphasizes applying technical knowledge and developing soft skills such as teamwork, communication, project management, and problem-solving. The Team Project aims to create working software with technical documentation. It is also an opportunity to gain experience in project work and prepare for a future career.
Activities undertaken as part of project activities
Team Project Day is an event during which teams present the results of their work in front of their mates, junior students, and invited guests, including industry representatives. It is an opportunity to showcase design achievements, compare their work with other teams, and assess their place among graduate students. During Team Project Day, the best teams can present their project in the form of a multimedia presentation, while other teams participate in poster sessions. The event is an important moment to summarize the work on the project and an opportunity to gain valuable expert feedback and opinions. Team Project Day also nominates the best projects for the WITCreativity competition.
Project planning At the beginning of the project, the team must develop an action plan, which is stabilized and approved by the facilitators no later than the end of the 2nd week. In the second week, the team prepares a Project Premise (project fiche), which includes the project title, acronym, list of team members, mentor, business goals, planned technologies, and project roadmap.
Team meetings and consultations with mentors Regular team meetings with the tutors are held every week of classes. At the meetings, the progress of the work is discussed, problems encountered, and the following stages of the project are reviewed.
Project implementation Teams execute the project based on agile methodologies (Agile). An important part of the work is planning and monitoring progress and using team practices such as code reviews. Each team member is involved in coding, documenting, and sharing knowledge with the team. The project must be ready for testing and deployment in at least a test environment by the end of the semester.
Key dates and milestones:
- Week 2: Preparation of the project fiche (Project Premise), which includes basic data about the project, its business objectives, and planned technologies.
- Stabilize the project plan, including the full specification of requirements and the implementation plan approved by the instructors (Backlog).
- Middle of the semester: Prepare the first version of the application and start project documentation.
- Week 8: Teams prepare the Poster and Abstract in parallel. These documents are necessary to select teams that will have the opportunity to speak at ZPI Days in the form of a multimedia presentation and a poster session.
- Week 9: Participation in the ZPI Day workshop/conference.
- End of semester: Finalize the project and hand over the final version of the software with complete documentation.
Final documentation The team is required to prepare the final documentation according to a defined template that includes key elements of the project. The documentation should be complete, coherent, and accurately present all aspects of the project, both technical and usable.
Participation in the seminar
Each team member must individually present the project and their participation in its implementation during the ZPI seminar.
The Class Instructor determines the scope of the presentation and may include, but is not limited to:
- Presentation of the overall goal and objectives of the project,
- A detailed description of the individual tasks performed by the student,
- Problems encountered during the project and solutions that were implemented.
Activities related to participation in ZPI Days
Preparation for Team Project Day Each team prepares:
- Premise - a short document describing the assumptions of the project (2nd week of classes),
- Abstract - a 4-page article describing the project (8th week of classes),
- Poster - a poster presenting the project, with key information and visuals (diagrams, charts) (9th week of class).
Selection of presenters The Project Team Day Scientific Council evaluates the papers. The best teams will be selected for multimedia presentation during Team Project Day. Teams not qualifying for the oral presentation will present their projects during poster sessions.
Evaluation of the project by the Team Project Day Scientific Council The performance evaluation by the Team Project Dat Scientific Council is part of the ZPI evaluation of the Quality and Scope of the final product. Documents and presentations are evaluated for completeness, professionalism, and compliance with requirements.
Team Project Evaluation
Quality and scope of the final product:
- Evaluation of the completeness of project implementation against the approved plan,
- Evaluation of usability, reliability, and readiness of the application for deployment,
- Ability to test the application in a production or test environment.
Quality and scope of documentation:
- Compliance with the required template,
- Depth of description and technical correctness,
- Readability and compliance with editorial requirements.
Use of agile methodology:
- Planning and monitoring of work progress,
- Use of team practices such as code reviews,
- Teamwork skills.
Commitment and contribution to the project:
- Scope of work completed (coding, documentation, knowledge sharing),
- Timeliness of task completion and class attendance.
Seminar evaluation:
- Readability of verbal communication, correctness of language used,
- Completeness of answers to the questions asked,
- Content of the presentation, which helps to understand the verbal message; includes data from reliable sources.
Details are described in the spreadsheet and are available on the department's website.
Summary The Team Project is a key component of engineering education, enabling students to gain practical skills in implementing complex IT projects in a technical and teamwork context. Participation in Team Project Day and an individual seminar ensures that each participant's skills are fully assessed.