The importance of project management documentation in computing students’ capstone projects

In attempting to integrate classroom studies with professional work practice, many universities include a capstone team project in the final year of their undergraduate computing degrees; the experience is designed to improve upon students’ essential technical skills and to help prepare students to become work ready by developing communication and team building skills. The quality of such a learning experience is influenced by the subtle interplays of three key elements: the curriculum, practice and industry standards. At the University of Ballarat the curriculum endorses the practice whereby students adapt industry standard documentation, in particular, the Software Project Management Plan (SPMP), as a mechanism to manage teamwork and organizational processes. Over recent years at the University final year computing students have been surveyed about their project experiences - feedback indicates that the task of preparing and using these management documents has had a positive impact on students’ readiness for the workplace