Capstone Option

Overview

The MIS Capstone course consists of a student executed Information Systems design project providing an in-depth practical experience. The central challenge for Management Information Systems professionals is to productively design, implement, and manage information systems, and to do so in a timely fashion. To this end, the MS in MIS program offers a variety of courses that teach students about key perspectives and approaches to address this challenge. Yet, real-world problems cannot be approached from a single perspective using a single approach. Management Information Systems challenges typically require an integrated and balanced set of perspectives, techniques, and methods to be dealt with effectively. The capstone course addresses that need through an in-depth practical experience. The course focuses on a real-life information systems design and development project that will be executed by the students using an Agile methodology. The project will typically cover the conceptualization, analysis, design, and production of a working, functional prototype of the system which serves as a proof of concept. It may also involve a pilot and/or implementation.

Students are expected to bring knowledge from the MIS core courses, their chosen electives, and their own experience into this course. Students are expected to apply their knowledge, to practice with different tools and techniques, to examine a variety of points of view, to critique the readings and each others' views, to stretch their thinking, and ultimately to learn how to be effective MIS professionals. Students will finish the course with a clear recognition that there is no "one right way" to engineer and implement an information system, that an information systems design project can be approached from different perspectives, and that a variety of disciplines can be brought to bear on the systems problem at hand.

Previous Projects

Since its inception in 2008, the MIS capstone class has been successful in delivering working prototypes to the clients. The projects taken up by the capstone class are mostly community-based projects aimed at helping the local community. Some of the projects that the MIS Capstone class has taken up are listed below.

University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Continuing Education Department (Spring 2015)

MS in MIS Capstone Team, known as MavMailers worked with the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s (UNMC) College of Nursing (CON) Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) department to develop a mass mailing prototype application that can be used by the College of Nursing and other colleges within UNMC.

UNMC CON CNE collaborated with the Capstone students at UNO’s MS in MIS program to develop an application to streamline their mass emailing process, eliminate use of third party email systems, minimize wait times, establish audit and control measures and finally reduce the direct IT support required in the mass emailing process.

The Mass Electronic Mailing Application provides UNMC CON CNE with a secure, web-based application for sending mass emails to their stakeholders. The application also encapsulates various other functionalities like profile management, e-blast workflow, cloning of mass mails and audit logging that makes the application highly user friendly.

The working prototype of the application was delivered to the UNMC CON CNE’s Information Technology team for implementation in their environment.

US Assets, LLC (Fall 2014)

Students from the Fall 2014 MS in MIS Capstone class worked with a local Omaha business, US Assets, LLC, to develop a technical solution to a business process that involved researching Tax lists. This process was manual, time-consuming and prone to human error. The team developed an automated system that integrates with two state government websites to gather data needed by the client in order to make time sensitive business decisions. The new automated system reduced research processing from a staggering 2 minutes to less than 6 seconds per record.

University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Continuing Education Department (Fall 2013)

MS in MIS Capstone Team, known as Capstone Innovations (CI) worked with the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s (UNMC) College of Nursing (CON) Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) department. This project was an extension of functionality of the project developed by the Spring 2013 MS MIS capstone course.

The mission of the client, UNMC CON CNE department, is to “to enhance the knowledge, skills, attitudes, competence, and performance of nurses, ultimately improving patient outcomes and community health.” UNMC’s CON CNE department provides registered nurses with accredited live and online programming that allows them to maintain their credentials.

The Fall 2013 solution created an efficient user interface supporting the maintenance of funding organizations, content providers, grants, grant payments, live and online content, as well as the scheduling of both. The system also generates reports, exportable to Excel or to a dynamically generated pdf, and produces invoices that the UNMC CON CNE issues to partners for accreditation fees, the department’s primary source of income.

NAQS Consulting (Fall 2012)

Nineteen students enrolled in the MS in MIS capstone course during the fall 2012 semester developed a robust and efficient electronic time tracking system for a business client called NAQS. NAQS is a consulting firm located in Lincoln, Nebraska that provides compliance advisory services related to complex environmental rules and regulations to companies around the United States. One of the main aims of the NAQS Time Tracking System Development Project was to design and develop an electronic time tracking system to overcome the limitations of the client's manual time management processes. Initial project requirements gathering occurred during a meeting between capstone students and NAQS. The student team then organized these requirements into five core modules. These modules were released iteratively throughout the project with the capstone students utilizing open source and freely available development software. Each module iteration included documents that described the new system features. The NAQS Time Tracking system comes loaded with many features that allow the client to track billable and non-billable time, as well as effectively managing projects and related tasks efficiently. Throughout the system development project, members of capstone class had an opportunity to implement a wide range of skills learned from their respective careers and courses (taken to complete the Masters in MIS program.) Furthermore, this project provided the opportunity for students to gain real-world experience with information system development.

Family, Inc. (Fall 2011)

The fall 2011 Capstone Course Team at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, was tasked with developing a prototype data tracking system for the nonprofit organization, Family Inc. Family Inc. provides support to families with young children and was founded in 1991 and is located in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

As the organization has grown over the years, so has its data tracking and reporting needs. The primary goal of the Family Infant Early Learning Data System (FIELDS) was to provide Family Inc. with a case-driven, web-based data tracking system that allowed for easy input and retrieval of client information. The initial development stage included learning the business, gathering user requirements, and determining the project plan. Using Agile Methodology, the team organized the requirements into tasks, tasks into stories and stories into sprints. Feedback and approval of the prototype was obtained at each system demonstration session. The final version of the FIELDS prototype developed by the team was delivered to Family, Inc. on Tuesday, December 13, 2011.

Video Interview Distribution System (Fall 2010)

The Video Interview Distribution System (VIDS) was developed to support the objectives of Project Harmony, a local non-profit organization whose staff work with local law enforcement agencies on behalf of victims of child abuse.

The web-based VIDS prototype has the potential to allow Project Harmony to eliminate the distribution of videotaped victim interviews via DVD and in return, protect victims' privacy. VIDS requires users to have a centrally assigned user account and assigned access to streaming videos in order to view interviews. Videos are uploaded via secure FTP and stored on a secure server to minimize the potential for access violations. Once uploaded to VIDS and assigned to users, interviews are available via a media player which features the ability to jump to any point in the interview without first loading the entire video. Users are allowed access to assigned videos for a specific timeframe and must request an extension of viewing privileges from the VIDS system administrator. VIDS also includes a video access log to provide the VIDS system administrator with information on the number of times interviews are accessed by assigned users. Many of the 13 members of the capstone team took on multiple roles to execute this project successfully - the system was developed by a team of 7 developers, 2 database designers, 10 testers and managed by a project manager, scrum master, technology manager and quality assurance manager. The capstone team developed the system prototype over the course of 15 weeks and delivered the final working prototype to the client one week ahead of schedule. Once VIDS is in production, it will help to support Project Harmony's purpose of "...ensur[ing] children are not further victimized by the system intended to protect them." (projectharmony.com)

No More Numbers Guide (Spring 2010)

The No More Numbers Guide is part of the Transformation Project aimed at facilitating the re-entry of former offenders into society. The aim of the No More Numbers Guide project is to build a functional prototype of a web-based system that provides three key functionalities to former offenders. The first functionality allows users to search for local community resources divided into eight areas: housing, education, employment, treatment of substance abuse, health care, treatment of mental health, positive social networks, and basic life skills. The second functionality allows certified community resources to be identified. The third functionality allows the users to enter and maintain their action plans and track their progress. The client for this MIS Capstone project was the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. A team of sixteen capstone class students developed the working prototype for the system in a span of sixteen weeks. The project also assisted the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice to secure a grant of one million dollars from its sponsor.

Immanuel Rehabilitation Portal (Spring 2009)

The intent of this project was to design and implement a functioning prototype for exploring possible extensions to Alegent Health's Immanuel Rehabilitation Center's (IRC) Rehabilitation Service Line.

The prototype system, referred to as the Immanuel Rehabilitation Portal, is a web environment designed to leverage social networking concepts against the stated needs of the IRC leadership combined with recommendations provided by the IRC's existing patient base. With its focus on maintaining lines of communication between the IRC providers and physical/occupational therapy outpatients, the portal represents a significant potential contribution to IRC's "Mind, Body, and Spirit" care paradigm. Some of the features of the Immanuel Rehabilitation Portal are Chat, Blog, News, Notes, and Survey that make the portal very interactive. The portal was developed using an Agile software development approach to meet Alegent's corporate business, information technology, and HIPAA compliance requirements. This project was executed over a seventeen week period, with ten capstone class students each contributing an average of ten hours per week to analysis, design, development, documentation, and consulting activities.

Computer Aided Recreational Therapy System (CARTS) (Spring 2008)

The Douglas County Health Center (DCHC) was the first client to collaborate with the MIS Capstone class. The DCHC is concerned with their residents' psychological well-being in addition to their physical needs. CARTS is a computer assisted, cognitive-stimulation, recreational therapy system designed to help Douglas County Health Center's residents with an entertaining and therapeutic computer system. Some of the salient features of the CARTS are Games, Music, News, Pictures, Puzzles and Travel. The capstone class, consisting of nine students built a working prototype to allow residents of DCHC to interact socially, connect to the outside world, and improve their physical and emotional well-being.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For more information about the capstone course, please contact:

Dr. Deepak Khazanchi
Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
College of Information Science & Technology
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha, NE 68182
Voice: (402) 554-2029
Personal URL: http://khazanchi.ist.unomaha.edu
SL Avator: Kapeed Vollmar
Skype: dkhaz2009