Software Engineering - Capstone or Thesis?
Software Engineering MS students must choose either the capstone option or the thesis option. The capstone option mandates SWEN 6837 Capstone Project, a three hour course in which students work in small groups on an assigned project. The school offers the one-semester capstone project each year in the fall and spring to students pursuing their degrees as entry to the workplace. This accommodates students who attend on-campus classes as well as those taking classes online. Distance-learning students in the capstone class communicate with each other, their instructor, and project mentor though an online class bulletin-board, via e-mail, and by phone. Students attending campus classes meet in person with members and online with distance-learning students. The capstone project requires work on a real-world project with a mentor/client, the target user of the project. Projects vary from semester to semester Past projects involved extensive process-definition; others centered around reuse, design, or requirements-gathering; others were more research oriented.
Capstone is a controlled course. You must fill out the control course form and e-mail it to Janet Brecheen to get permission to enroll. You qualify for acceptance if you are in your final semester before graduation or if you complete all seven core courses.
The thesis path serves students seeking a PhD. in addition to an MS. It also suits those pursuing research in a specialized area of Software Engineering. Students considering the thesis option (SWEN 6939, Master's Thesis Research) need to meet in person with their thesis committee chair while preparing the thesis. Most people take a year (two semesters and one summer) or more, to finish their thesis. Completing a master's thesis is a rigorous process which demands scholarly research and attention to detail. The thesis is worth six hours of credit. It is a course you enroll in semester after semester until you finish. You may enroll in thesis three, or four, or more semesters in a row, each time enrolling in three to six hours of thesis. Once you complete your thesis, however, you earn only six hours of thesis credit.
If you are already in the SWEN program pursuing a thesis, you need to talk to the program chair, Dr. White, see contact information below. Also, there are some specific details about the process of producing a thesis provided here that you will want to review.
SWEN Program Chair: S. White, Ph. D.
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