Software Project Courses
On the Software Project course, teams of 7-9 students develop a software system for real clients using the Scrum process framework. The course is an essential part of the Bachelor level studies for all computer science students. Furthermore, in each team a Master level Software and Service Engineering student acts as the Scrum Master.
The clients are mainly from the industry, and have interesting, real problems that allow the students to rehearse their skills in a realistic software development setting. There are no limitations to the problem domains or technologies used, yet alone some of the student teams must find a project proposal feasible. Each student spends around 200 hours for the project including time needed for studying new technologies. Through the use of the incremental Scrum process, the project scope is aligned during the project to fit the available effort.
The course personnel teach the students to use the Scrum process and coach the teams during the project. The students get an understanding of the common technical and non-technical challenges related to software development projects, and become familiar with some particular domain and implementation technologies depending on the chosen project.
Each year about fifteen projects are completed, and the close collaboration with industry dates back to 1990s. Many partners hire some of the students after the course every year.
Contacts: Jari Vanhanen, jari.vanhanen [at] aalto [dot] fi
Duration: 6 months, October-April
Size of the students group: 7-9 students
Project fee for a sponsor: €3.000
Application period for a sponsor: by the end of August
Case – RELEX Mobile
RELEX Solutions develops supply chain planning solutions for retail and wholesale industries, having clients in 17 countries. One RELEX software instance might control material flows for a customer with 1000 stores and a central warehouse. RELEX solution is used often by supply planners solely on desktop.
The goal of the student project was to develop a mobile app that would provide 1) simple access to the most relevant information of store level supply, 2) easy access to check and adjust automated supply suggestions, and 3) a direct channel of interaction between supply planning and store managers. The students successfully designed, implemented, tested, and delivered the complete system to RELEX.
“We were expecting to get a first prototype to get an idea whether to start actually developing an app. Instead we got a fully functioning product of professional quality. We have shown this to a few clients and they are very excited and ready for pilot use.”
Mikko Minkkinen, Product Owner, RELEX Solutions.