Incorporating Product Development in CS Curriculum

This paper presents our experiences in incorporating an industry product development within a two semester course sequence in object oriented analysis & design and Internet/Web architecture & development. Industry client(s) provided the scope, evaluation, and feedback through the project analysis, design, and development. This approach of ours was to facilitate experiential learning and move away from the classic learning- through-academic-exercise. This is a paradigm shift for the students from targeted academic tasks to taking responsible roles in usable product development. We present our experiences from the conceptual stages of the project through the implementation of user needs carried out during the two semesters. We list the challenges posed for the instructor, the students enrolled in the classes, and the industry participant.