Transforming the Client Relationship to Support Large Capstone Classes

Ahstract–This innovative practice full paper describes a case study from a software engineering capstone project course. Undergraduate programs often have a final-year capstone course designed to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills students have previously acquired while adapting to industry-standard practices. Capstones play a critical role in bridging the gap between academia and the industry as students transition to the workforce. Over the past twelve years, our institution has adopted a client-based model where industry clients work closely with a single team to solve a real-world problem. However, rising enrollment has put a strain on running this model effectively because of difficulties in recruiting clients, managing numerous client relationships simultaneously, and keeping client-student interactions sustainable. To tackle these challenges, we propose a new client model where clients pitch their ideas as themes in a competition and act as panel judges in evaluating student team submissions. We call this the hackathon client model and evaluate it in a class with 22 teams and 104 students. Through a thematic analysis of the qualitative responses gathered from this study, our findings suggest this new model provides a scalable alternative to operating a large capstone class while preserving many of the benefits of the traditional client model. However, both students and clients indicate having more means of communication would improve the project requirements phase and strengthen their relationship. We discuss ideas on improving the hackathon client model and plans for future experimentation in large capstones.