Teams of 3 to 5 graduate students working simultaneously across 3 workstreams. Every team develops and pitches one fundable, field-tested IT solution for Philippine artisanal agriculture or fisheries.
Open the class scoring spreadsheet and write five grassroots problems in your community. Every problem must be framed from the fisher's or farmer's point of view, backed with empirical field evidence (no jumping to solutions).
Score each problem 1 to 5 on the 6 weighted criteria. Before locking in the #1 winner, the team's designated Devil's Advocate delivers the strongest objection, and the team must defend it in one sentence.
Split into 3 workstreams to fill the 11-section Project Charter: SMART criteria, Level-2 WBS, System Context Diagram, Milestones, and a preliminary budget with a mandatory 10% contingency reserve.
3-minute 1-slide pitch to municipal stakeholder roles (Mayor, MAO, BFAR, Fisherfolk Co-op, ICT/DPO) followed by a 2-minute defense defending operational and financial feasibility.
If your team needs empirical inspiration, draw from these real-world coastal and rural municipal challenges:
• FishR and BoatR municipal registries severely out of date.
• Zero recorded catch logs for municipal waters under 15km.
• Late gale warnings fail to reach fishers without smartphone 4G.
• Red tide shellfish harvesting bans arrive after market dispatch.
• Farmers missing from RSBSA registry, blocking DA fuel subsidies.
• PCIC crop insurance claim verification stuck on physical paper.
• Armyworm and blast pest outbreaks reported days too late.
• Estuary water salinity and pH tested manually once a week.
• Ice-ice seaweed blight spreads without predictive environmental warning.
• Severe price asymmetry: fishers sell at buyer price without market feeds.
• 30% post-harvest loss from inadequate ice logistics at municipal piers.
• Thousands of mangrove saplings planted with zero survival monitoring.
• Marine Protected Area (MPA) patrol logs kept on paper notebooks.
| Criterion | Weight | Anchor: Score 1 (Weak) | Anchor: Score 5 (Exemplary) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Livelihood Impact | 25% | Touches <20 households; minor economic inconvenience | Directly protects hundreds of livelihoods, food security, or life safety |
| Feasibility | 20% | Requires unavailable satellite arrays or 4G LTE at sea | Feasible in 12 months using 2G SMS, solar batteries, and local LGU staff |
| Urgency & Vulnerability | 15% | Can wait 3 years with negligible public impact | Critical immediate hazard: loss of life, harvest failure, or stock collapse |
| Sustainability & Climate | 15% | Zero ecological or climate resilience benefit | Directly reduces disaster risk, preserves fish stocks, or restores mangroves |
| Data Readiness | 15% | No registries exist; Data Privacy Act compliance impossible | Empirical registries exist (FishR, RSBSA) and are legally accessible |
| Policy Alignment | 10% | Not mentioned in any municipal or national plans | Explicitly prioritized in LGU AIP, Coastal Resource Plan, or BFAR mandate |
The project chosen today does not end today. Here is exactly how your team will advance this exact project across Days 2 to 5:
Problem discovery, SMART success criteria, 1-box Context Boundary, 3-level WBS, Three-Point PERT, 26-week Critical Path & 10% Reserves.
Decompose the Charter into Scrum Epics, write BDD User Stories for Mang Ramon & Ate Liza, and calculate 78 focus hours for Sprint 1.
Score typhoon and political risks with EMV ($P imes I$), prove Risk Reduction Leverage (RRL > 1.0), and establish RA 9184 SLA penalty clauses.
Align project with municipal objectives using COBIT Goals Cascade, calculate the 5-Year TCO Iceberg (CapEx vs OpEx), and score against portfolio competitors.
Conduct Month 3 EVM audit ($PV, EV, AC, CPI, SPI, EAC$), execute crisis schedule crashing during typhoons, and execute COA asset capitalization handover.