The TEC Phase 4 Capstone project will challenge you to work
together and use everything you have learned throughout the previous three phases to build a working application that fulfills a real need that you have. You will need to come up with a project idea, pitch it to the instructor team, plan it, build it and present it. Projects You will use Design Thinking and Value Proposition Design concepts, which you will learn during weeks 1-2 of Phase 4, to come up with an idea for your project. You will have the option of creating a codebase from scratch or using a provided starter template pre-configured with Vite and GitHub actions. From there, you will have creative agency to design and build any project you would like, provided it includes the following: The problem you’re looking to solve with your app At least one user persona/customer profile describing a type of user A value map showing what you offer in your app A description of how what you’re offering fits the needs of your users
All project ideas need to be approved by the instructor team before work can begin. Project approvals will happen during week 2.
Capstone Project Mentors will assist with project scoping by helping you assess the feasibility, specificity, failure modes, and goals of their projects. Technology Starting week 3, you will be given 8 weeks to use what you’ve learned through Phases 1-3 to build your project. While you can decide on how to approach developing your project, it must adhere to the following guidelines: Must be a web app Should make use of at least one API Should store, retrieve, and change data locally Must not require a back-end server. Things that require a back-end server may include: Sharing and consuming user-generated data (a.k.a a “social” app) User authentication Persisting a user’s data between devices or browsers Sending notifications to a user Must use Vite for local development and production site building Must use Prettier to ensure code consistency and catch potential errors Must use GitHub to store code and host a “production” version of their app using GitHub Pages Must test that Prettier and Vite build works correctly before deploying using GitHub Actions Must use GitHub Actions to deploy code from a single branch The single branch code gets deployed from must be protected
During project development weeks, we expect teams to coordinate and commit to working sessions. We will require that fellows meet with your Capstone Mentors 1x/week for alternating Sprint Planning/ Retrospective sessions (to scope/review 2-week design sprints) and General Office Hours (to discuss overall progress and ask questions about your code). You will also have an opportunity to work on your code together during Live Instruction Session I and ask additional coding questions there.
Capstone Project Mentors will provide bi-weekly office hours to answer coding questions your team has during implementation.
Group work You will work in groups of no more than 5 to complete their projects. During week 3, we will provide instruction on Agile development processes to teach you how to manage your work. We expect teams to use GitHub issues and GitHub projects to manage your backlog of work and plan your work week over week through a sprint planning meeting and participate in team retrospectives, all with the help of their Capstone Mentor, as described below:
Sprint planning ~30 minute meeting Discuss completed work from previous iteration Add any new items to the backlog, as needed Discuss what in-progress work wasn’t completed, and why Ensure the backlog of work and unfinished work from the previous iteration are stack-ranked in priority order Decide whether to carry unfinished work over to the next iteration or re-prioritize it Assign work for the next iteration based on priority order and capacity (how much an individual can get done in an iteration as “total”, difficulty and risk of completion as “value”, subtract “value” from “total” for all issues without going over “total” for each individual)
Retrospective ~60 minute meeting Create a Jamboard with 3 columns, “What went well”, “What didn’t go well”, “Discussion topics” Spend ~10 minutes (total) individually creating sticky notes for items in each column, one idea per sticky note Spend ~5 minutes grouping like sticky notes together per column and labeling them Spend ~5 minutes voting on what to talk about, 5 votes per person, split across all topics and columns Spend ~35 minutes talking through as many groupings as you can, starting with the group with the most votes and moving down, and writing down action items to take for next iteration that may come up as a result of the discussion Spend ~5 minutes taking a team “temperature”: Each team member says how they’re feeling about the project, red (bad), yellow (ok), or green (good) and why Capture action items or discussion topics to talk about based on the outcomes here. No feeling is “wrong” here, it’s important to be open and honest in order to help ensure a better work environment and help the team improve
Capstone Project Mentors will guide you through the sprint process and help you understand team member roles/responsibilities. Presentations During weeks 9-10, groups will be expected to finalize your code and build a presentation to share about your work. Presentations will be 10 minutes long and should include the following: The problem you’re solving with your app At least one user persona/customer profile describing a user of your app A value map showing what your app offers A description of how your app solves the needs of your user(s) A walkthrough of how you decided what features to focus on and how you worked together to produce your app A demo of your app An explanation of key technical decisions for your app (APIs used and why, additional tools not required and why, folder structure, etc…) What you learned while building your app (both technically and about working as a group)
Each member of the team must present a portion of the presentation. Presentations will take place week 11. Sample ideas and APIs Meal prep app using the USDA FoodData Central API Road trip planner using the Google Maps API and Google Places API Hashtag wall using the Twitter API or the Instagram API Research assistant using the LIbrary of Congress API