Dimensions for Categorizing Capstone Projects

Capstone projects are a valuable opportunity for computer science and software engineering students to take what they have learned over the previous three years of their education and apply it to an open-ended project. Some universities offer multiple capstone projects, defined and supervised by different faculty members. Here we describe a set of dimensions that can be used to categorize capstone projects to determine the level of realism, areas of risk, as well as an overall project type. Instructors can use the capstone dimensions and project type in capstone planning to ensure that projects meet the desired course outcomes.