Scoping Design Parameters for Educational Software Development with the Entrepreneurial Mindset

This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents a successful approach for scoping term project design parameters. Making connections between classroom material and real-world design has always been challenging for educators; while the technical bells and whistles tend to captivate students, there's a lessened interest in the business, customer, and societal aspects of design. However, one must remember that design is made for people. Accordingly, some programs incorporate service-learning into their curricula, usually in the junior or senior year. This paper presents two innovations: (1) using a first-year programming course as the service-learning venue where (2) elements of the entrepreneurial mindset are employed to scope the design of a software application project augmenting a client-specified theme. The entrepreneurial mindset models employed are the NABC, which helps designers develop a proposed solution, and the MVP, where an early prototype is created to avoid the risk of building something no one wants. Using these models helps teams to communicate their ideas with both clients and team members, and determine whether they are converging toward an acceptable and timely solution, creating value for others by designing software meeting identified needs. Multiple assessments have shown the effectiveness of this approach, with students appreciating having open-ended client-based problems. To facilitate adoption, a repository containing all instructional materials associated with this paper is available at the Engineering Unleashed website.