Assessment of a project management capstone course for IS/IT students in a small university setting

Abstract

Capstone courses, which are often the final course in a student's undergraduate education, provide an opportunity for students to apply and hone the essential skills and knowledge they need to succeed in their chosen field. The focus of this paper is on a project management (PM) capstone course that is offered to Information systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) students at a small Caribbean university. Five years ago, the university's PM capstone program was restructured to use real-world IT projects that would deliver needed solutions to local enterprises serving as program sponsors. Relying on quantitative and qualitative data collected from key stakeholders over the past five years, this paper assesses whether the restructured capstone program has met its objective of enabling IS/IT students to develop both the technical/hard skills and the soft skills needed to succeed as well-rounded IS/IT professionals.