Second Semester

After receiving faculty comments on our final proposal, we revised the conceptual design of InSERT and began development of the product. During the second semester we developed three increasingly detailed and functional prototypes of InSERT.

The class developed detailed specifications and diagrams of the design to meet the requirements. Research was conducted to find appropriate examples of systems engineering endeavors, career paths and salaries, and to insure licensing agreements were not violated. After both the technical and creative writing, and the finding (or developing) of supporting graphics was completed, the programming was done using Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML). A new version of InSERT was released every week, and a new protoype was released once a month.

Each weekly version was tested by the class, and faculty members tested the new prototypes on a monthly basis. In addition, we had freshmen engineering students test InSERT for appropriateness of content and general appeal. A senior in computer science tested it to try to make the system "crash," and an English major reviewed the text for grammatical accuracy. We held weekly design reviews to modify our design to incorporate lessons learned, faculty comments, and general improvements.

Product Presentation

In addition to the system development efforts, the class developed and delivered a number of presentations to develop our communications skills. Monthly status reviews and product presentations were developed and given to the SE faculty as part of the development process. In addition, the class entered InSERT in The Technology Learning Competition and presented the design and the system to representatives from industry.