Overview
In this integrative capstone project, you will develop a significant and authentic mobile application. Specifically, you will employ the technical and professional skills that you have developed in your course of study to contribute to the development of an authentic web, hybrid, or native app. You will apply a relevant software engineering methodology, taking into account best practices in testing, quality assurance, and cyber security. You are required to use and document typical project management processes to ensure that the project is delivered on time and within budget.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-Requisites: COIT20268 Responsive Web Design, COIT20269 Mobile Web Apps, COIT20270 App Development for Mobile Platforms, PPMP20007 Project Management Concepts, COIT20246 Networking and Cyber Security.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Unit Coordinator reflection
The unit requires students to progressively develop a prototype, and avoids excessive number of written reports, allowing students more time for development.
Keep the main focus on prototype development rather than producing excessive amount of written reports.
Feedback from Unit Coordinator reflection
Use of state-of-the-art tools would enable students to accelerate development of quality mobile applications.
Mandate the use of state-of-the-art tools, such as Figma for user interface design and Bootstrap for HTML page design.
- Apply a systems engineering process in the context of mobile application development, including requirement analysis, application software design, algorithm design, coding and debugging, software testing, and software project management, informed by research into best practice
- Demonstrate professional standards of software development, including technical skills, documentation, software quality assurance, cyber security best practices, risk mitigation strategies, and ethics
- Plan and manage the software development project, particularly the scheduling of time and resources and the generation of supporting documentation
- Work collaboratively as part of a productive team
- Communicate effectively by using written and oral presentation and understanding the needs of various stakeholders
- Critically review individual and team performance, along with identifying areas for improvement.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS), the professional association for Australia's ICT sector, recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments, and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 8 (the SFIA code is included):
- Requirements definition and management (REQM)
- Programming/software development (PROG)
- Software design (SWDN)
- Database design (DBDS)
- Data modelling and design (DTAN)
- Systems integration and build (SINT)
- Configuration management (CFMG)
- Testing (TEST)
- Research (RSCH)
- User experience evaluation (USEV)
- Application support (ASUP)
- System installation and removal (HSIN)
- Systems and software life cycle engineering (SLEN)
- Information security (SCTY)
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 15% | ||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 10% | ||||||
| 3 - Presentation and Written Assessment - 25% | ||||||
| 4 - Practical and Written Assessment - 40% | ||||||
| 5 - Written Assessment - 10% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Android Studio (latest version)
- Zoom (both microphone and webcam capability)
- Visual Studio Code (latest version)
- Gradle (latest version)
- MySQL Database Server or SQLite database
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
p.poon@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introduction to Software Engineering
Chapter
Chapter 1
- Section 1.1 What is Software Engineering?
- Section 1.2 Software Engineering Life-cycle
- Section 1.4 The Object Model
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Form project group, identify & discuss project topic
Module/Topic
Object Oriented Software Engineering
Chapter
Chapter 2
- Section 2.1 Software Development Methods
- Section 2.2 Requirement Engineering
- Section 2.3 Software Architecture
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Finalize project topic & scope
- Work on project proposal
Module/Topic
Use Case Analysis & Modeling
Chapter
Chapter 2
Section 2.4 Use Case Modeling
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Finalize project proposal
- Submit project proposal
Project Proposal Due: Week 3 Friday (22 Nov 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Use Case Analysis & Modeling
Chapter
Continue Chapter 2
Section 2.4 Use Case Modeling
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on:
- detailed user stories,
- user interfaces,
- data structures,
- database schema,
- software architecture,
- platforms/tools/frameworks,
- test plan
- project tracking tool
Module/Topic
Use Case Analysis & Modeling
Chapter
Chapter 2
- Focus on design & class diagrams
- Focus on software testing (2.6 Test-driven implementation)
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Submit Progress Report 1
Progress Report 1 Due: Week 5 Friday (6 Dec 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Modeling & System Specification
Chapter
Chapter 3
Section 3.1 What is a system?
Section 3.2 Notation for System Specification
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Setup & configure platforms/frameworks/runtime environments
- Create & populate database
- Commence prototype development
- Create user interface mockups
- Create API stubs
- Track project progress
- Submit Progress Report 2
Progress Report 2 Due: Week 6 Friday (13 Dec 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Work on prototype improvement
- Test the prototype after each cycle
- Receive customer feedback
- Add, drop or modify user stories/features, if needed
- Track project progress
Module/Topic
Enjoy the break.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Enjoy the break.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Advanced Topics
Chapter
Chapter 9
Section 9.4 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Section 9.5 End user software development
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Demonstrate the current prototype in the class
- Submit Prototype Demonstration Stage 1 update report
Prototype Demonstration Stage 1 Due: Week 8 Friday (3 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Work on prototype improvement
- Test the prototype after each cycle
- Receive customer feedback
- Add, drop or modify user stories/features, if needed
- Track project progress
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Demonstrate the current prototype in the class
- Submit Prototype Demonstration Stage 2 update report
Prototype Demonstration Stage 2 Due: Week 10 Friday (17 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Continue development of the mobile app
- Perform integration test
- Start developing the presentation
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Complete development of the mobile app
- Complete user acceptance test
- Complete presentation development & practice
Module/Topic
This unit does not have any examination.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
- Deliver a public presentation to demonstrate the final project outcomes
Public Presentation & Demonstration of Final Project Outcomes
Due: Review/Exam Week Monday (10 Feb 2025) 9:00am AEST
Unit Coordinator: Associate Professor Pak Poon
Email: p.poon@cqu.edu.au
1 Written Assessment
This is a group assessment. In general, all team members will receive the same mark in this assessment. However, if performance varies significantly across team members, individual marks can be awarded.
In this assessment, you are required to develop a project proposal for the development of a mobile application. The mobile application can be a native, or hybrid app. You should come up with an original or semi-original idea for a mobile application, which should have some business value.
The project proposal should be written into a document including the following 5 components or sections:
- Project background
- Project objectives
- High-level user requirements
- Hardware & software requirements
- Risk management & quality assurance plan
The detailed specification of this assessment will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
Week 3 Friday (22 Nov 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Late submissions are subject to the university's late submission penalty policies.
Week 5 Friday (6 Dec 2024)
The feedback will be returned within 2 weeks of the submission due date.
The assessment criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Plan and manage the software development project, particularly the scheduling of time and resources and the generation of supporting documentation
- Work collaboratively as part of a productive team
2 Written Assessment
This is a group assessment, however, individuals may receive different scores based on their contributions.
In this assessment, you are required to report progress on the following 8 items:
- Detailed user stories
- Wireframes of all user interfaces
- Major data structures
- Database schema
- Software architecture illustrating all components
- Platforms/languages/tools/frameworks
- Test plan (should include user acceptance test)
- Project tracking tool
The detailed specification of this assessment will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
Week 5 Friday (6 Dec 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Late submissions are subject to the university's late submission penalty policies.
Week 7 Friday (20 Dec 2024)
The feedback will be returned within two weeks of the submission due date.
The assessment criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Apply a systems engineering process in the context of mobile application development, including requirement analysis, application software design, algorithm design, coding and debugging, software testing, and software project management, informed by research into best practice
- Plan and manage the software development project, particularly the scheduling of time and resources and the generation of supporting documentation
3 Written Assessment
This is a group assessment, however, individuals may receive different scores based on their contributions.
In this assessment, you are required to report your progress on the following 4 items:
- Setup & configuration of platforms/frameworks/runtime environments
- Database creation
- Creation of user interface mockups on the client-side
- Creation of API stubs on the server-side
A copy of the prototype source code must be maintained in a GitHub repository & a link to the repository must be included in the report. You are also required to show the evidence of tracking the progress of your project using a project tracking tool (e.g., Jira).
The detailed specification of this assessment will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
Week 6 Friday (13 Dec 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Late submissions are subject to the university's late submission penalty policies.
Week 8 Friday (10 Jan 2025)
The feedback will be returned within 2 weeks of the submission due date.
The assessment criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Work collaboratively as part of a productive team
- Critically review individual and team performance, along with identifying areas for improvement.
4 Practical and Written Assessment
This is a group assessment, however, individuals may receive different scores based on their contributions.
For this assessment, you will demonstrate the current prototype of your mobile application in the class as well as submit a brief update report on the progress. Demonstration of the prototype & submission of the update report will be done in 2 stages. The Stage-1 demonstration & submission will be accomplished in Week 8 & the Stage-2 demonstration & submission will be accomplished in Week 10. Each stage carries 20 marks.
In each stage of demonstration, you will run the current prototype of your mobile application in a lab computer/your personal computer/your mobile device to demonstrate the user stories/interfaces/features/business logic that have been fully or partially implemented during the current progress period. You are also required to show evidence of tracking the progress of your project using a project tracking tool (e.g., Jira).
In your update report, you will provide a brief update on the following 5 items for the current progress period:
- User stories/interfaces/features/business logic implemented (provide screenshots)
- Test results for the implemented user stories/interfaces/features/business logic (provide screenshots & annotations)
- Errors/problems with the implemented user stories/interfaces/features/business logic (provide screenshots, if possible).
- User stories or other features introduced (if any)
- User stories or other features dropped or modified (if any)
A copy of the prototype source code must be maintained in a GitHub repository & a link to the repository must be included in the report.
The detailed specification of this assessment will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
Note: This assessment task is selected to be included in your course-wide portfolio. The outcomes/artifacts of this assessment must be uploaded to Portfolium (https://portfolium.com/activity) by the submission due date in addition to your submission via Moodle for marking.
Stage 1 update report must be submitted by Week 8 Friday, 11:55pm AEST. Stage 2 update report must be submitted by Week 10 Friday, 11:55pm AEST.
The feedback will be returned within two weeks of the corresponding submission due dates.
The assessment criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Demonstrate professional standards of software development, including technical skills, documentation, software quality assurance, cyber security best practices, risk mitigation strategies, and ethics
- Communicate effectively by using written and oral presentation and understanding the needs of various stakeholders
5 Presentation and Written Assessment
The presentation will cover:
- Demonstration of a fully running mobile application
- Presentation of the final project outcomes
Each group will have 15-20 minutes to present the above items to the plenary.
With (1) above, it is advised that each group installs their mobile app on their mobile devices prior to the delivery of the presentation. The mobile app must be demonstrated during the presentation.
With (2) above, each group must also present all aspects of their mobile application development project covering the project background, objectives, user stories, major data structures, database design, software architecture, platforms/tools/frameworks, test results (including user acceptance test), & lessons learnt. You also need to present a brief security assessment of your app.
The presentation session will be held on Monday in Review/Exam Week. The Head of Course or Unit Coordinator will schedule the time of presentation. You will have to make yourself available for the whole day on the day of presentation.
The detailed specification of this assessment will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
Note: This assessment task is selected to be included in your course-wide portfolio. The outcomes/artifacts of this assessment must be uploaded to Portfolium (https://portfolium.com/activity) by the submission due date in addition to your submission via Moodle for marking.
Review/Exam Week Monday (10 Feb 2025) 9:00am AEST.
The feedback will be returned on the day of certification of grades.
The assessment criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Demonstrate professional standards of software development, including technical skills, documentation, software quality assurance, cyber security best practices, risk mitigation strategies, and ethics
- Communicate effectively by using written and oral presentation and understanding the needs of various stakeholders
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
