Software Project

What can the company expect from taking part in this project?

There are no limitations as to what type of companies can participate or to the problem domains or technologies used, yet alone some of the student teams must find the project proposal feasible. We have partnered with numerous companies, including but not limited to F-Secure, Tuxera, Relex, Sievo, Futurice.

Each student spends around 200 hours for the project including time needed for studying new technologies. With the use of the incremental Scrum process, the project scope is aligned during the project to fit the available effort.

The participating company will receive

• small, working software systems
• innovative problem-solving
• networking with Aalto computer science students
• gaining experience of working as a Product Owner in a software project

What is required from the company?

• Providing an informative and interesting project proposal.
• Acting as the Product Owner as defined in the Scrum process framework.
• Participating at least to creating the Product Vision, Sprint Planning and Demos (at least 6 times) and Project Reviews (3 times). Furthermore, some communication is typically needed on a weekly basis.
• Evaluating the student team giving points and concrete feedback in each Project Review (3 times).
• Providing necessary software and hardware unless they are already provided by Aalto University.
• If the company can help the students with the selected implementation technologies, they can get more results. The course personnel does not provide support with them.
• Additional support is appreciated, e.g., a work room at the company office, a development server, any necessary devices, arranging a project kick-off with refreshments etc.

What do the students receive?

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.

The course personnel teach the students to use the Scrum process and coach the teams in its use during the project. Furthermore, 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.

Course details

• Contact: Jari Vanhanen, Senior University Lecturer, [email protected]
• Project duration: 6 months (October - April)
• Number of students per project: 7-9
• Project fee for a company: 3 000 € + VAT
• Application period for companies: 12.8.-28.8.2024
• Course Website: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/mod/page/view.php?id=1200413

Together with VR, the students created the Vuosi raiteilla summary (The Year on Track), which summarises the kilometres travelled along the tracks and the time spent on the train in 2023.

The new  summary, which will be displayed to VR's registered customers in the VR Matkalla app, will also show how much less emissions the customer has caused by travelling by train compared to travelling by car, plane or bus. In addition, the app classifies each customer's personal traveller persona from 11 different options based on their travel and other choices.

News release on vrgroup.fi (in Finnish)

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. Previously, RELEX solution was 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.