Chapter 8

Final Project

Putting it all together.

Subsections of Final Project

Introduction

YouTube Video

Resources

Video Transcript

Greetings! This video describes the final project in this class. You can also find the full assignment description on the next page of this module. I encourage you to read it as soon as possible and ask any questions you have via the course discussion forums. I anticipate this project taking several weeks to complete, so I recommend starting soon. You do not have to wait until you have competed the entire class to start on the final project, but I do expect you to have all the labs completed before submitting the project, since it should reflect the entirety of your learning in this class.

Also, you may choose to work with a partner on this assignment. If you do, please email me and let me know. Teams will be expected to produce roughly twice the quantity of work described here, so plan to scale the scope of your project accordingly.

In essence, the goal of this project is to demonstrate your knowledge and experience in system administration by proposing, prototyping, and analyzing some type of information technology project. The audience for your proposal will be the typical C-suite executives in your organization. So, some of them will have a technical background, and others may not. You’ll have to design and write about your project accordingly.

There are several types of projects I’ve highlighted for this assignment:

  • A change to K-State’s IT infrastructure
  • Building a new cloud-based startup in a particular domain area
  • Building an effective computer support infrastructure for K-State
  • Designing and configuring a devops stack for a programming project

With all of those options, you may substitute K-State for another organization you are more familiar with. However, it should be of an appropriate size to make the project worthwhile. If you’d like to get some examples for each type of project, feel free to ask me to provide them.

For this assignment, you will create four parts.

The first is a 1-page proposal describing the background and your proposed change. You may also include a brief analysis and justification for the change, but it is not necessary at this point. The proposal should also be in a professional format. The linked article from wikiHow gives some great examples. You’ll submit the proposal online via Canvas, and I’ll approve it, usually within a working day. Once it is approved, you can start working on the project itself.

The second part, and bulk of the project, consists of designing your proposed infrastructure. As part of the design, you should select some portion that you believe should be prototyped, and build that prototype using either virtual machines or cloud resources, whichever is appropriate. For example, if building a new cloud startup, you might prototype what a server for that company would look like, or explore systems for automatically provisioning cloud resources to match the scaling needs of the company. You don’t have to build the whole thing, but I expect you to build some smaller portion that demonstrates your ability to use what you’ve learned in this class in some practical way.

For the third part, as you are developing your proposed infrastructure, I would also like you to spend some time analyzing it. The design should be consistent with what we’ve learned in the class, as well as industry best practices. You’ll probably need to do some outside research and reading for this part. Make sure you keep track of all the resources you use, since you’ll need to properly cite those in your report. I’d like you to perform a SWOT analysis of your proposed structure. A SWOT analysis looks at the internal strengths and weaknesses of a proposal, as well as the external opportunities and threats that are implied by that project. Many businesses use this type of analysis for self-reflection, and I feel that it is a very valuable skill to learn. As an aside, in previous semesters many students simply reported that their proposal didn’t have any weaknesses or threats, but that simply isn’t the case. Any proposal has trade-offs and weaknesses, and it is your job to find them.

Once you are comfortable with your proposed design, prototype, and analysis, you’ll need to write a technical paper describing what you did. I’ve included a link to the Standard Technical Paper Template, which I highly encourage you to use for your paper. I have not given any specific minimum or maximum length, but it should adequately describe your project without being so long that it is difficult to read. Feel free to include any helpful graphics or diagrams to help describe your project. In addition, make sure you properly cite any resources or references you used while working on this project.

Following that, you should prepare a presentation to share your findings with your audience. The presentation should be 7-15 minutes in length. You may use any style of presentation you choose, as long as it would be appropriate for this project. Again, make sure you keep your intended audience in mind as you create the presentation. During your presentation, be prepared to describe your proposal, demonstrate the prototype, and present your analysis in order to convince your audience that it is a good proposal that should be implemented.

When you are ready, you’ll submit your write-up and presentation materials via Canvas. At that time, you’ll also contact me to schedule a time to give your presentation, either in-person or via Zoom. You won’t submit your prototype, but will demonstrate it during your presentation.

That’s all! Hopefully it all makes sense, but if not, feel free to post your questions on the course discussion forums on Canvas.

Finally, a note on deadlines. As with everything else in this course, there is no specific deadline for this project other than the end of the course. That said, you should start on this project well before that date. Specifically, you must submit your proposal no later than one week before the last date of the course. In addition, if you contact me on the final day trying to schedule a presentation time, it may already be too late to complete everything. So, don’t wait until the last minute to complete this project!

Assignment

Final Project

Instructions

The final project in this course is to demonstrate your knowledge and experience in a variety of areas of system administration. In addition, you’ll gain experience communicating about those areas with non-technical users.

Audience

For this project, your intended audience is primarily C-suite executives (CEO, CIO, CFO, President, Vice-President etc.) of the organization. Some of them will have a technical background, some will not. So, you’ll have to write and present accordingly.

Step 0: Teamwork

If you so choose, you may team up with another student to complete this project. Please let the instructor know via email if you plan on working on a team for this project. Teams will be expected to produce roughly twice the quantity of work described below, so plan to scale the scope of your project accordingly.

Note

For example, a 15 minute presentation becomes a 30 minute presentation. Likewise, your proposal and report should be twice as long as it would be if only one person was working on it. –Russ

Step 1: Proposal

First, you’ll need to create and submit a proposal for your project. Your proposal should fit in one of the major topic areas below:

  • How would you change a particular aspect of K-State’s IT infrastructure? (You may substitute another organization you are more familiar with in place of K-State, such as your current employer or a past internship)
  • How would you architect the technology resources for a new, cloud-based startup in the domain area of your choice? (That is, you must clearly describe what the company does as well as how you’d structure their resources.)
  • How would you build an effective computer support infrastructure for K-State. (You may substitute another organization you are more familiar with in place of K-State, such as your current employer or a past internship. However, it should be of sufficient size to warrant a formal support infrastructure.)
  • How would you develop an automated devops stack for a particular programming project or organization?

Submit your 1 page proposal via K-State Canvas for approval. Once it is approved, you may start working on the project itself. Make sure you have appropriately scaled your proposal to the amount of work below; if the proposal is too simple or too complex it may be difficult to complete everything listed below.

Warning

Do not wait until the last minute to submit your proposal! To make that point clear, the proposal is due typically one to two weeks before the end of the course, giving you ample time to complete the project.

Step 2: Design & Prototype

The next step of the project is to design your proposed system and develop a small prototype showing some aspect of it in practice. In this phase, you’ll clearly describe the proposed solution in as much technical detail as you feel is needed. It should be very clear that you’ve carefully considered each element of the solution, and have taken steps to make sure it is clear and easy to understand.

If you do any research, make sure you include the relevant links, papers, and resources in your write-up described below. As with any academic work, any information you use that is not of your own creation should be appropriately cited.

You may develop your prototype using virtual machines, cloud resources, or any other infrastructure available to you. If you are unsure of the appropriate scope of the prototype, please contact the instructor to discuss your options.

Step 3: SWOT Analysis

In addition, you will perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of your proposed solution and associated prototype. Be very blunt and honest in each section, as you should be able to show the level of depth of your technical expertise, the lessons learned through building the prototypes, and any analysis you have performed.

Tip

There are NO proposals without several external threats and internal weaknesses, no matter how good it is. If you can’t find any, think harder! :^) –Russ

Step 4: Technical Writeup

Once you feel you have fully designed and analyzed your proposal and prototype, you will need to create a formal technical paper detailing your work. It should follow the Standard Technical Paper Template from Dr. Goddard at UNL. Hopefully the content in each section should be pretty self-explanatory. There is no minimum or maximum length specified; it should be long enough to include everything needed to describe your proposal and analysis, but short and succinct enough that it is still worth reading.

Note

The paper template uses bullets to show what belongs in each section of the paper, but your paper SHOULD NOT consist solely of bullet points.

Step 5: Presentation

Once you are ready, you will present your proposal, prototype, and analysis to your audience. The presentation will be a short video recorded using any tools you prefer. It should be no shorter than 7 minutes, and no longer than 15 minutes for a single presenter. You’ll need to clearly explain the relevant background, the proposal, the analysis, and your conclusions based on that analysis. In short, you’re trying to sell the audience on this proposal and convince them to consider adopting it, so you’ll need to not only focus on presenting the information, but persuading the audience to be in favor of the change. Any slides, graphics, or other elements to make the presentation more persuasive is encouraged.

Step 6: Submit & Schedule

Finally, submit your writeup and video via Canvas.

As with any assignment in this course, if you have any questions at all please contact the instructor or post in the course discussion channel.

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Last modified by: Russell Feldhausen Aug 10, 2023