The use of mobile technologies is fast becoming integral to lives of individuals and groups across the planet. In this course, working in teams, students will propose, design, develop, test, and market software for mobile devices. Not only will best practices for mobile software development be learned, but best practices for entrepreneurs will also be learned. As well, students will put their creations up for sale/distribution by uploading their apps to the appropriate market place.

MAJOR TOPICS COVERED

1. Software life cycle models
2. Requirements analysis and specification
3. Software design methodologies
4. Software testing & integration
5. Programming team strategies and management
6. Portability, maintenance, experimentation
7. Project discussions and team meetings
8. System documentation

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. To teach students the basic components of the software life cycle.
2. To teach students how to conduct requirements analysis
3. To teach students how to design and implement a mobile app based on design specifications
4. To teach students how to thoroughly debug and test software systems.
5. To teach students how to work effectively in teams to develop systems.
6. To teach students how to manage software projects.
7. To teach students how to develop marketing materials to support the sale/distribution of one’s software products

Mobile technologies are bigger than the Internet. The Internet is a roadway; without a car, the roadway isn’t useful. Mobile technologies are the cars for the Internet roadway. There are approximately 7 billion people on this planet and there are approximately 4.5 billion mobile phones. Approximately 417 million mobile phones were sold in Q3 of 2010, up 35% from Q3 of 2009. In Q4 of 2010, more smartphones were purchased than PC’s — the crossover that was predicted for 2012 occurred in 2010!

And, for undergraduate entrepreneurs mobile app development provides a unique and unprecedented opportunity: for the first time, an individual or a small team can create a software product in a relatively short amount of time (e.g., 4 weeks), put that product up for sale to the general public, and receive financially interesting compensation.

In this course, then, we will learn how to be productive entrepreneurs — by being entrepreneurs! We will create mobile apps and put them into the appropriate mobile app store (e.g., Apple’s iPhone/iPad Store, Android’s Marketplace, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Store, etc.).

There are two major bodies of knowledge that an undergraduate entrepreneur needs to master:

1. software design and development (including interface design, user testing, etc.) and
2. entrepreneurial practices (i.e., business practices).

Towards acquiring those two knowledge bases, students will undertake a variety of assignments, from making regular PowerPoint class presentations to writing a business plan.

In addition to addressing these bodies of knowledge, students will engage in the hands-­on practice of entrepreneurship by actually inventing, building, and marketing their own mobile apps. Students will work in teams of 3-4. Faculty and students from other disciplines (e.g., business school, art & design school, music school) will make guest lectures and will collaborate with the entrepreneurial teams (e.g., work collaboratively on interface design with art & design colleagues, work collaboratively on a marketing plan with business school colleagues). In addition, business leaders from the local community (e.g., the CEOs of Menlo Innovations, Mobiata, MobaTech) — and representatives from non-­local companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google — will make guest lectures and advise students on their entrepreneurial activities.

Note: It is University policy that students own whatever software products are produced in the course.

TEXTBOOKS The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win, Steven Gary Blank, 2006, Second Edition, ISBN-10: 0976470705

Course Requirements:

All materials are due on the assigned due date. Late work: NOT accepted