Professional Documents
Culture Documents
These policies and guidelines were formulated with the objective of helping the BSIT students of School
of IT to deliver useful capstone projects on time.
Comments and suggestions are continually welcome for the betterment of the BSIT program.
This document intends to serve as a guide for faculty and students alike in determining what are allowable
standards for a capstone project in the context of undergraduate studies in IT.
With the goal of adequately preparing students for their respective careers by involving them in a large
project that extends over several months, the capstone project is put in place to demonstrate:
2. Projects
2.1 Categories
Projects may fall under one of the following categories:
a. Software Development
Software customization
Information Systems Development for an actual client (with pilot testing)
Web Applications Development (with at least alpha testing on live servers)
Mobile Computing Systems
b. Multimedia Systems
Game Development
e-Learning Systems
Interactive Systems
Information Kiosks
c. Network Design and Implementation and Server Farm Configuration and
Management
d. IT Management
IT Strategic Plan for sufficiently complex enterprises
IT Security Analysis, Planning and Implementation
2.2 Scope of the Work
The panel and the adviser must ensure that the project is feasible/attainable within a school year if
done in a part-time basis.
Detailed Proposal – IT200L
Developmental Work – IT200 -1L
Final Writing – IT200-2L
3. Project Stages
The entire course program officially starts upon successful defense of the project proposal and ends with
the submission of an approved project document and other deliverables. The capstone project has three
stages. At the end of every stage, each group submits specific deliverables for evaluation and acceptance
by the adviser and panels.
For all the stages of the project, the criteria used when deliberating the defense verdict include:
a. complete and acceptable deliverables;
b. a well-prepared and delivered presentation; and
c. a productive Question and Answer session.
3.1 Pre-Proposal
Pre-proposal stage results in the identification of a capstone project. This stage involves the
following activities:
a. identification of the problem;
b. specification of the objectives of the project; and
c. search of related literature.
The only deliverable at the end of this stage is a concept paper. This is a pre-requisite in order for
the topic to be approved by the course adviser.
The deliverable at the end of this stage is an approved proposal that includes a
partial project document covering Chapters 1 to 3. These chapters include the
Introduction (project context, objectives, scope and limitations), Review of
Literature, Methodology, and the description and initial design of the system to
be developed.
In very rare and extreme cases, the defense panel may allow
modifications in the software objectives and scope prior to the FINAL
WRITING defense. For this, the proponents must submit a letter (signed
by the adviser noted by the Dean) to the defense panel explaining why
there is such a need.
3.3 IT200-1L
The proponents are required to enroll IT200-1L. During this stage, there are no deliverables
submitted to the defense panel. However, the proponent performs the following activities:
a. implementation/development of the solution identified in the Proposal
b. analysis of the solution
Project Milestones should be identified by the proponents and the schedule should be submitted
to the Course Adviser and noted by the Technical Adviser.
This is the stage where the system is implemented, tested, and the results analyzed.
3.4 IT200-2L
During this stage, the proponents perform the following activities:
a. documentation of the results
b. finalization of the project document
c. preparation for the project final presentation
The following are the deliverables required at the end of this stage:
a. the complete capstone project document
b. for projects involving software systems or applications:
the Technical Manual;
the User’s Manual (If the system is immediately deployable); and
the running software.
The verdict is a unanimous decision among the three members of the defense panel. Once issued,
it is final and irrevocable.
The development and defense of the capstone projects involves the following key parties:
4.1.1 Responsibilities
The following are the responsibilities of the proponents:
a. Keep informed of the Capstone Project Guidelines and Policies.
b. Keep informed of the schedule of project activities, required deliverables and deadlines posted by
Course Adviser.
c. Submit on time all deliverables specified in this document as well as those to be specified by the
Course Adviser.
d. Submit on time all requirements identified by the defense panel during the defense.
e. Submit on time the requirements identified by the adviser throughout the duration of the project
development.
f. Schedule regular meetings (at least once a month) with the adviser throughout the duration of the
capstone project. The meetings serve as a venue for the proponents to report the progress of their work, as
well as raise any issues or concerns.
4.2.1 Selection
The adviser will be chosen by the faculty handling Capstone Project course from the pool of SOIT faculty
based on the following factors:
a. the faculty member’s research area and projects;
b. the advising and administrative load of the faculty
4.2.2 Responsibilities
4.3.1 Selection
In special cases, a panelist may come from an external unit. The panel members are chosen by the
Dean based on the following constraints:
a. At least one of the panelists is a senior faculty member, whose research area is the area the project falls
under,
b. At least two of the panelists belong to the research area under which the project falls; and
c. The composition of the defense panel must be retained, as much as possible, throughout all the stages
of the capstone project.
4.3.2 Responsibilities
The defense panel has the following responsibilities:
a. Validate the endorsement of the technical adviser. The panel serves as “internal auditors”, providing a
form of check and control on the kinds of project being approved by the School.
b. Evaluate the deliverables.
c. Recommend a verdict.
d. Listen and consider the requests of the adviser and/or the proponents.
e. Nominate a project for the Outstanding Capstone Project Award. Guidelines for the Outstanding
Capstone Project Award will be provided separately.
5. Documents
5. 1 Format/Page Layout
The general format and page layout of the document should follow the format prescribed for Mapua’s
institutional Thesis document.
The font used for the entire document must be Times New Roman with a point size of eleven (11).
Paragraphs must be double-spaced.
Title Page
Table of Contents
Chapter I.
Introduction
Objectives
General Objective
This section states the over-all goal that must be achieved to answer the problem.
Specific Objectives
This subsection is an elaboration of the general objective. It states the specific steps that must be
undertaken to accomplish the general objective. These objectives must be specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic, time-bounded. Each specific objective may start with “to
design/survey/review/analyze…”
Studying a particular programming language or development tool (e.g., to study Windows/Object-
Oriented/Graphics/C++ programming) to accomplish the general objective is inherent in all project and,
therefore, must not be included here.
Chapter II
Review of Related Literature/Review of Related System
This section discusses the features, capabilities, and limitations of existing research, algorithms, or
software that are related/similar to the project. The reviewed works and software must be arranged either
in chronological order, or by area (from general to specific). Observe a consistent format when presenting
each of the reviewed works.
Chapter III
Methodology
This section lists and discusses the specific steps and activities that will be performed by the proponents
to accomplish the project. The discussion covers the activities from pre-proposal to Final Document
Writing. This section also includes an initial discussion on the theoretical/conceptual framework to be
followed.
Examples of activities include inquiry, survey, research, brainstorming, canvassing, consultation, review,
and interview, observe, experiment, design, test, document, etc. The methodology also includes the
following information:
who is responsible for the task
the resource person to be contacted
what will be done
when and how long the activity will be done
where will it be done
why should be activity be done
Calendar of Activities
This section contains the Gantt chart showing schedule of the activities outlined in Section 3.0.
Title Page
Approval Sheet
Acknowledgement*
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Chapter I. Introduction
1.1 Project Context
1.2 Purpose and Description
1.3 Scope and Limitations
1.4 Significance of the Project
Chapter II. Review of Related Literature/Review of Related Systems
Part of the contents of this section is lifted from Chapter 2 of the Proposal. Additional materials gathered
during final document Writing stages must also be included.
This chapter also includes a discussion of possible improvements that can be made on the software, as
well as future directions of the research topic in general. This serves as a springboard for projects that
may be done by capstone project proponents.
Appendix A Diagrams
Appendix xxx …
Appendix (xxx)+1 Resource Persons (follow the format in the Proposal)
Appendix (xxx)+2 Personal Vitae (follow the format in the Proposal)
References (see Section 5.4)
The Association for Computing (2003, Mueller et al., 2003) Machinery is the pre-eminent professional
body dealing in all aspects of information technology. This is a style guide for their reference and citation
format. Note that there are some slight stylistic differences between the format for the magazine
Communications of the ACM (per the style in EndNote) and the ACM conference proceedings reference
format (per the style in the ACM conference proceedings template). This document will describe the
Communications of the ACM style. In practice, adherence to a single, consistent style is satisfactory.
References Section
The References section appears at the end of the paper. All references appear alphabetically by the lead
author’s last name and are numbered consecutively. A clear header should be used to indicate the start of
the References. Example:
References
1. Bless, H. The Interplay of Affect and Cognition. in Forgas, J.P. ed. Feeling and Thinking: The
Role of Affect in Social Cognition, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2000, 201-222.
2. Garcia, A.C.B. and Howard, H.C. Acquiring design knowledge through design decision
justification. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 6 (1).
59-71.
Citation
As you write your report, you will cite your references. A citation to a reference in the body of the text is
indicated by a bracketed number corresponding to the reference number in the References section.
Example:
During high stress periods, individuals should focus on the situation-specific tasks rather than rely on
general knowledge structures. [1]
Reference Formats
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
A complete reference should contain the name(s) of the author(s) and/or editor(s), the title of the article,
the name of the book or conference proceedings where appropriate, and bibliographic information about
the article such as the name of the publisher, the city of publication, and the page numbers. The basic
concept is that the reference should be sufficiently complete so that the reader could readily find the
reference and can judge the authority and objectivity of the reference.
All author names appear as Lastname, Initials. For example, if Andy Dong is the primary author and
Alice M. Agogino is the second author, the correct appearance of the author names would be: Dong, A.,
and Agogino, A.M.
Example:
1. Fogg, B.J. Persuasive technology: using computers to change what we think and do. Morgan
Kaufmann Publishers, Boston, 2003.
THIS IS THE REFERENCE STYLE FOR AN ARTICLE WHICH APPEARS IN AN EDITED BOOK.
Authors. Title. in Editors Title of edited book, Publisher, City of Publication, Year of Publication, Pages.
Example:
Example:
1. Hirsh, H., Coen, M.H., Mozer, M.C., Hasha, R. and Flanagan, J.L. Room service, AI-style. IEEE
intelligent systems, 14 (2). 8-19.
Example:
1. Leclercq, P. and Heylighen, A. 5,8 Analogies per hour: A designer's view on analogical
reasoning. in 7th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Design, (Cambridge, UK,
2002), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 285-303.
THIS IS THE REFERENCE STYLE FOR ELECTRONIC MEDIA (ARTICLES, IMAGES, ETC.) RETRIEVED
FROM THE WEB. FOLLOW THE REFERENCE FORMAT FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE AND THEN
INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WEB SITE AND THE DATE WHEN YOU RETRIEVED THE
RESOURCE. NOTE THAT THE DATE OF PUBLICATION AND THE DATE OF RETRIEVAL OF THE
ARTICLE MAY NOT BE THE SAME. WHEN THERE IS NO DETERMINATE DATE OF PUBLICATION, USE
(N.D.) IN THE DATE FIELD. WHERE POSSIBLE, INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE ORGANIZATION
HOSTING THE WEB SITE.
Examples:
In the following example, the Cornell Chronicle is a regular newsletter which is published online. Thus,
we follow the journal/magazine format and include the volume and issue.
Steele, B. Look, Ma, no wires! Cornell class project tests wireless networking, Cornell Chronicle, 31
(35). Retrieved February 15, 2004, from Columbia University:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/00/5.18.00/wireless_class.html.
The following Web page has no evident author, but the “Revised date” in the footer gives us the date of
publication.
MIT Project Oxygen: Overview, 2004. Retrieved March 15, 2005, from Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/Overview.html.
FOGG, B. J. (2003) Persuasive technology : using computers to change what we think and do,
Amsterdam ; Boston, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
MUELLER, F., AGAMANOLIS, S. & PICARD, R. (2003) Exertion interfaces: sports over a distance for
social bonding and fun. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing
systems. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA, ACM.
Therefore, it gives a detailed step-by-step instruction on how to use each function and feature of the
system.
Title Page (see Section xxx, but add the line USER’S MANUAL below the project title)
Table of Contents
1.0. Introduction
This section gives an overview of the system. It includes the following subsections:
1.2. Installation
This subsection contains instructions on how to install the system, and the list necessary files and their
respective directories.
1.3. Convention
This subsection presents the convention used in the manual, e.g., text in boldface for emphasis on
important concepts, text in italics are inputs from the users, etc.
6. Forms
6.1 Title Page
<Title of Project>
by
<lastname, firstname, middle initial of proponent>
<lastname, firstname, middle initial of proponent>
<lastname, firstname, middle initial of proponent>
<adviser’s name>
Faculty Adviser
<date of submission>
This is to certify that I have supervised the preparation of and read the CAPSTONE document prepared
by Name of Proponent 1, Name of Proponent 2, Name of Proponent 3 entitled title of the project and
that the said document has been submitted for final examination by the Oral Examination Committee.
_____________________
Name of Adviser
Adviser
As members of the Oral Examination Committee, we certify that we have examined this CAPSTONE
document, presented before the committee on date of final defense, and hereby recommended that it
be accepted as fulfillment of the practicum requirement for the degree in Bachelor of Science in
Information Technology.
______________________ ______________________
Name of Panel Member 1 Name of Panel Member 2
Designation Designation
______________________
Name of Lead Panel
Designation
This CAPSTONE document is hereby approved and accepted by the School of Information Technology as
fulfillment of the practicum requirement for the degree in Bachelor of Science in Information
Technology.
___________________
Nilda S. Eliquen
Associate Dean, School of IT
Proposal Final
introduction 2 minutes brief introduction 1 minute
objectives 4 minutes objectives 2 minutes
scope and limitation 4 minutes scope and limitation 2 minutes
significance 4 minutes design and 5 minutes
review of literature 2 minutes implementation 5 minutes
methodology and 4 minutes analysis of results 5 minutes
schedule project demonstration 15 minutes
recommendations 5 minutes
3. The panel will ask you to step out for initial deliberation (normally 10 minutes), after which you will be
motioned back for questions and answers (normally 10 minutes).
4. The panel will ask you to step out for final deliberation (normally 5 minutes), after which you will be
motioned back for the final verdict and your clarification of the verdict (normally 5 minutes).