Bulding Community Service Projects Effectively 1

BUILDING COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS EFFECTIVELY

Lisa MacLean and Michael Wernermacleanl@wit.edu, wernerm@wit.edu

Department of Computer Science and SystemsWentworth Institute of Technology

Boston, MA 02115

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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 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 web-enabled 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   Coop  

Seniors 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 On-Line Applications Internal review and approval

Tracking attendance and progress Provide reporting internally and to funding

agencies

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Initial Scope

1. EPST (Employment and Professional Skills Training Program)

2. SCSP (Seniors in Community Service Program)

3. Parent Involvement Program

4. Youth Program

5. Technology Training Program

6. Volunteer Program

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Actors

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 Developer’s commitment and time line Client’s commitment and time line Clear requirements specification

Student preparation Formal course in project management Course in WWW applications including server-

side 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

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 Students gain experience with real projects Give-back to the community

New - Center for Service learning Better understanding of how to do it

Student and faculty preparation Project management Application frameworks

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Questions?