Introduction The University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) is the premiere state university in the Philippines that specializes in courses for the health professions and is regarded as a health campus in the University of the Philippines System. It is composed of seven colleges consisting of the Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Allied Medical Professions, Public Health, Dentistry, the National Teacher Training Center--Health Profession, and the School of Health Sciences. At the heart of the University is the Philippine General Hospital, the premiere tertiary hospital in the country that serves as training ground for students. In 1996, the College of Arts and Sciences, through the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics (DPSM), launched the BS Computer Science program in line with the demand for more IT professionals in the health sciences. The program was initially adopted from an existing program at the University of the Philippines Los Banos. Although the subjects are basically the same for both degree programs, the degree program at UPM focused on addressing the problems of the health sector. Because of this, the BS Computer Science program of UPM is considered unique as there is no university in the Philippines that specializes in the development of computer specialists for the health sector. Each year only 30 students are accepted due to limited slot availability. A Need for Collaboration Due to budget cuts from the government, UP Manila's budget is centered mainly on maintenance of operations and salaries of employees. There is hardly any budget left for improvement of operations through application of information technology. The lack of resources paved the way for DPSM to pursue an active role in developing applications for UP Manila through its BS Computer Science program. Furthermore, DPSM believes that the BS Computer Science students will become more knowledgeable in their field by immersing them in the development of real world projects rather than working with case studies. Thus there is a need for collaboration between DPSM and the health profession colleges. Through this collaborative scheme, the health professional colleges will provide the necessary project requirements while DPSM will supervise the students in the construction of the software project. It is agreed that the students will be producing an evolutionary software prototype only since the project is still a part of the students' initial training. However, the resulting prototype may be used by the colleges in order to see a snapshot of their envisioned software project. Additionally, changes in the set of requirements can be made as well as installation of new features and functions can be determined. This collaboration strategy is similar to the one proposed by Mathieu (1993), Longo (1998), Harris (1995), Mehic and Al-Soufi (1999), Surendran and Young (2000) and Abbott et al. (2001; 1998) the main difference being in our strategy, the client is also from the same University and not from the industry. Our strategy aims not only to expose students to actual hands-on experience in developing information systems but also to bring technology to the academe with the least cost to the University as proposed by Van Over and Dangerfield (1993). The software prototype can later be enhanced by another group of students during their Practicum Class on the following term, by the same group of students working as student assistants but functioning as software developers, or by another group of students as main coursework for their Special Problem (Thesis). Setting the Foundations The strategy is implemented in the software engineering subject, a junior subject in the BS Computer Science curriculum. engineering as implemented in UP Manila is credited as a 3-unit subject comprising of a two-hour lecture and three-hour laboratory. It emphasizes Software Engineering in the Large or the application of software engineering principles to the development of a software product by a team equivalent to a small or moderate industry project as specified in the Guidelines for Engineering Education Version 1. …