Many traditional software engineering capstone courses typically assign separate projects to different teams. This approach provides limited opportunities for students to develop the inter-team collaboration and system integration skills needed in professional software development. This experience report presents our teaching framework for Software Engineering Workshop III, a final-year group capstone course redesigned around a “software ecosystem-centric” model. In this framework, all student teams contribute to a single, interconnected microservice system, creating industry-aligned technical dependencies that require inter-team collaboration. We also incorporate industry-standard tools, extensive industry partnerships, and development workflows that mirror professional software development environments in the industry. Our analysis of students’ reflections and feedback shows that specific, designed challenges contributed to the development of key skills. For instance, technical uncertainty and mandatory team interdependencies fostered students’ professional maturity and improved their problem-solving and collaboration skills. The productive friction inherent in this model supported students in achieving deeper learning outcomes. These outcomes include building a professional portfolio and enhancing their career readiness—achievements that are difficult to realize in traditional isolated projects. Drawing from this experience, we present key lessons for educators on how to manage productive uncertainty, support student autonomy while providing necessary guidance, and assess learning through process-focused evaluation. This report offers a practical model for other institutions aiming to close the gap between software engineering education and real industry training.