Information Assurance Applications in Software Engineering Projects

摘要

One USNA requirement (for computer science or IT undergraduates) is a capstone project. Students--in groups of three or four on a project of their choosing--must find a customer, define requirements, and meet key milestone dates in providing a software or system artifact. Projects require about 150 hours per person and must be completed and fully documented within the 15-week semester. Over the past two years, there has been increased student motivation to choose IA-related projects. Like software or systems engineering projects in other fields, students found it especially challenging to define customer requirements and meet expectations and milestones. Faculty use these challenges as learning opportunities by allowing students to make their own project decisions, even if poor decision making leads to a mid-project failure, because these failures will teach the students much more than a perfectly executed plan. Students found that taking on projects in the IA field of study created additional challenges in subject matter knowledge, system design, and implementation.