Every year from January to April, third year undergraduate computing students from the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University take on projects in small teams. The project module is intended to provide an authentic experience of working to a client brief comparable to the experience of students on work placement.
Projects are sourced as far as possible from outside the University. If you have a project that has been sitting on your back-burner for some time, this could be a chance to give it some attention.
Projects typically involve software development or system configuration as their central activity with students of project management or design-oriented subjects providing specialist input. Previous projects have involved application development for desktop, Web and mobile platforms, network installation and configuration activities and the development of interactive media.
The process starts with the preparation of a project brief. This is initiated by the client by registering on this site and entering the project details. The client is then contacted by staff from the University to discuss any refinement of the wording before the brief is released to the students.
During November and December, students form teams to bid for available projects. The client has the final approval over the team acceptance – for example, if there is competition it will be a question of selecting one of the teams. The client may withdraw the project at any time.
Projects start in January with a kick-off meeting between the client and the team, and they finish in April. At the end, the team arranges a formal hand-over meeting with the client to sign the project off as complete. There is at least one other formal meeting required between the team and the client to assess the progress of the project around the end of February. The very last stage of the process is the graded formal presentation that the team makes to University staff at the end of the trimester (April/ May) which client are also invited to attend.