The student enrollment and course tracking system Meta-Project

Summary form only given as follows. This paper discusses an innovation in teaching the Systems and Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in the Graduate School of Management and Technology at University of Maryland University College. The innovation is a Meta-Project that takes the form of a series of linked projects across the four classes that cover the SDLC. The benefits that the Meta-Project provides the student with, are a better understanding of the interaction between the phases in the SDLC, and a better ability to cope with the vagueness of the real world. The students thus experience the entire SDLC of a system in four semesters. They learn by completing their assignments in the phase of the SDLC covered by the class. They do this handicapped by the consequences of poor performance up-schedule in a previous phase. Consequently, they develop an awareness of the effect of poor performance in any phase of the SDLC on its later phases. As iterations of the courses in SDM track continue and issues are uncovered, the Meta-Project will adjust and improve itself. This will help to provide UMUC with an educational program that is geared toward preparing the students to cope with the projects that they will be expected to complete in the real world. As with any new project, the initial reception has been mixed. The Meta-Project links a series of projects in each of four classes by using products and skills developed in one class in others.