Finding a project, working with AI

ISOM 472 — Fall 2026/2027

Dr. Mohammad AlMarzouq Week 2

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

These concepts are quizzed

  • A branch. A commit. A problem statement. A client
  • Not the tools — the ideas underneath them
  • You are asked about them individually
ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

You could let the AI do all of this

And we will. That is the course, not a loophole.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

But you still have to instruct it — and check it

  • You cannot phrase an instruction for a concept you do not have
  • You cannot judge an answer you do not understand

An instruction you cannot phrase produces work you cannot check.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

And the tokens run out

  • Quotas end, usually mid-phase
  • Part of this work is yours to do by hand

A student who has never understood a branch cannot recover a repository with the quota exhausted.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Three things today

Finding a project

A business problem worth solving, and a client who will talk to you.

Working with AI

How to prompt it, how to check it, and how to own what you ship.

The repository

Six words, and three rules. This is where your individual mark is read.

Next class opens with your own repository on screen — branch, commit, pull request — before proposals are reviewed.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Finding a project

Due next class

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

A business problem, not a solution

"We will build an app" is not a problem.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

The same project, stated two ways

A solution

"We will build an ordering app for a bakery."

Nothing here can be wrong, so nothing here can be checked.

A problem

"Orders arrive on WhatsApp, nobody records them, and about four a week are lost."

The problem version names what happens today, what goes wrong, and how often. That is the version I accept.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Where projects come from

  • Someone you already know who runs something
  • A family business, a society, a clinic, a department
  • Someone who will answer the phone late in the semester

Proximity beats ambition. A small problem with a reachable client finishes. A large problem with a client you cannot reach does not.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Talking to a client — what to ask

  • What happens today? Walk me through it, step by step
  • What goes wrong, and how often?
  • What do you do when it goes wrong?
  • Who else touches this besides you?

Ask all four before proposing anything at all.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Do not lead the witness

Leads the witness

"Would an app that tracks your orders be useful?"

They will say yes. They are being polite.

Does not

"What happens when an order comes in on a busy Thursday?"

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

What an accepted proposal contains

  • The client, named, and how you reach them
  • What happens today, step by step, and what goes wrong
  • Who is better off, and how you would know
  • What is in scope by the final week of the semester — and what is not

The required shape is given in class and on the course site. Fill in that shape, not a document of your own design.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

What makes a proposal acceptable

Real

A named client outside this room, with a problem they actually have.

Business value

Someone is measurably better off: money saved, time saved, a better decision.

A plausible next life

It could be sold to a business, or adopted by a public organisation.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

What gets rejected, and why

Proposal Why it is returned
A to-do list app No client, and nobody is better off
"An app for a restaurant" A solution, not a problem
A platform for every clinic in Kuwait Cannot be finished by the final week of the semester
A copy of an existing product The problem is already solved
A client who will not meet you Nothing to verify, nobody to accept it
ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Tell your client what this is

  • A coursework prototype, built by students
  • Publicly visible at a public address
  • Unsupported after the final week of the semester

Say this in the first meeting, now. Not after the semester ends, when they are relying on it.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

The proposal is delivered twice

  • docs/proposal.md in your repository — prose, in the required shape. This is the document I judge against the bar.
  • The same content, published as a page from your repository — you present the proposal from that live address. Checked as done or not done: reachable, or not.

Every delivery from here follows the same pattern — present from a public address, then take questions. The final demo carries the largest weight in the course, so the cheapest place to rehearse the pattern is here, not there.

The page is not graded on how it looks. Spend this week talking to your client, not making it pretty. How to publish is not class time — the publishing guide on the course site has the steps.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

What Phase 1 asks of you

A formed team, a verified environment, and a proposal I accept. 5 marks.

  • The full checklist, with the resubmission rules, is on the course site — and we close this session with it

Exact dates are announced in class and on the course site.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Nothing passes the end of week 3

Without an accepted proposal, a project is assigned to you.

Exact dates are announced in class and on the course site.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Working with AI

Expected, not permitted

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

AI use is expected here

There is no manual track and no AI track.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

What misconduct is

Misconduct is the inability to explain your own system, not the use of a tool.

Say it back to yourself before you ship anything: can I explain this line if I am asked about it out loud?

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Prompting, in three moves

  • Give it the context it cannot see — the file, the schema, the error
  • Say what "done" looks like before it starts
  • Ask for the plan before the code

A one-line prompt gets a one-line understanding of your problem.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Verifying, not trusting

  • Run it — on the real path, not the happy path
  • Feed it bad input — empty, wrong type, a duplicate
  • Read it, and be able to say what each part does

The failure mode is not code that breaks. It is code that looks right and is confidently wrong.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

You own what you ship

  • The agent wrote it. You are answerable for it
  • At the demo, questions are asked out loud, to individuals
  • About your own part, including the parts you did not type

"The AI produced it" does not reduce your responsibility for it. It never has, for any professional tool.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Declare it on every pull request

AI-Assisted: <tool> / <what it produced> / <what you changed>

AI-Assisted: none

Both are fully legitimate. Not declaring is the offence.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

The repository

Where your individual mark is read

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Three words, defined once

Repository

The team's folder, plus its entire history. Nothing is ever quietly overwritten.

Branch

A line of work that does not disturb anyone else's.

Commit

A saved point, carrying your name and a message.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Three more

Pull request

"Here is my work. Please look at it before it becomes real."

Review

A teammate reads it and says what they checked.

Merge

It becomes part of the real thing.

Branch → commit → pull request → review → merge. That loop is the whole working method of this course.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

One repository, one tool

  • One repository per team. There is no individual repository
  • GitHub Desktop is how you use it — buttons, not typed commands
  • Everything lands in the same place: code, prototype, ledger, notes

Next class: we open with your repository on screen and walk branch → commit → pull request together, before proposals are reviewed.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

The three collaboration rules — and only three

  1. One branch per story, named after the task
  2. Nobody merges their own work. A teammate reads it and says what they checked
  3. The Client Lead accepts. A story is not done because the person who built it says so
ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Work invisible in the repository did not happen

Every student commits under their own account.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Commit messages carry the story

feat(orders): add duplicate-order check  [#14]
  • A type, a scope, and what changed
  • The story ID, so the work traces back to the board

The full specification is one short page, and it is a required reading this week.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Before next class

08:00, Room 1001

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Phase 1 — due at the end of week 2

A formed team, a verified environment, and a proposal I accept. 5 marks.

  • A formed team, with roles recorded on the roster workbook
  • A verified environment — the tools installed and signed in
  • A proposal I accept, in the required shape — as docs/proposal.md, and published as a page from your repository
  • Rejected proposals come back within 3 calendar days
  • The first resubmission carries no penalty; a second caps that component at half
  • No team passes the end of week 3 without an accepted proposal

Exact dates are announced in class and on the course site. Bring your laptop; we open with your repository.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Required reading — the project and the client

Reading Time
NN/g — User Interviews 101
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-interviews/		 15 min
The required proposal shape — given in class and on the course site 10 min

Read the interview article before your first client meeting, not after it.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Required reading — working with AI

Reading Time
Gemini API — Prompt design strategies
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/prompting-strategies		 25 min
Antigravity Docs — Artifacts
https://antigravity.google/docs/artifacts		 12 min
ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Required reading — git and the flow

Reading Time
GitHub — About Git
https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/using-git/about-git		 20 min
GitHub — GitHub flow
https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/using-github/github-flow		 12 min

Read the concepts in About Git and ignore the typed commands — this course uses GitHub Desktop.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Required reading — pull requests and commits

Reading Time
GitHub — About pull requests
https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests		 15 min
Conventional Commits 1.0.0
https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/		 10 min

About two hours of required reading this week — the heaviest of the term, and deliberately front-loaded so the later weeks are build time.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University

Find the problem. Then build.

Next class, 08:00, Room 1001.

ISOM 472: Project in IS — Kuwait University