The E-commerce Practicum is the most important component of the MSEC degree program.  It consists of a two-minisemester team project to build a prototype E-commerce system to address a real problem furnished by a corporate client.  Students will be organized into competing teams of appropriate size comprising individuals of varying backgrounds and skill sets to cover both the business and technical aspects of the problem.

Students will be graded both on collectively-written team deliverables and a final project report in which each individual student performs a post-mortem analysis of the development process, describing the ways in which the delivered system meets or fails to meet the client's goals and explaining any defects in the analysis, design, implementation and testing phases.

Students will interview client personnel and potential system users, conduct market research, transform client needs into a requirements document, develop a system design that includes a human interface component and build a working prototype suitable for testing by the client.  It is intended that the system will be turned over to the client for further development at the conclusion of the Practicum.

Because of the complexity of the Practicum, it is run strictly in accordance with a detailed schedule.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of four minisemesters of MSEC course work.