The project process is meant to provide a unique educational experience for students, one that reflects what could happen when students go to work in industry. Through the mechanism of the process, the student may effectively interact with clients, industry professionals in industry, and their professors
Of course, no process could ever hope to capture every process variation that exists in industry. Some industrial firms have very little process with little documentation and others have a strict process with carefully prescribed documents and measurements to assure quality; most firms lie in between these two extremes. The developers/maintainers of this Process did so by polling alumni and other professionals to learn about the processes in their firms, have investigated published research on processes and have studied processes used in similar courses at other educational institutions, and incorporated feedback from students and clients who have gone through the process as well.
Through the process, the student will complete a portion of a project for a client as part of a project team. Projects may run over a period of several terms or courses i.e. beyond a particular student or team's participation in the project. Because of this, enough documentation must be present so that other people who continue the project at a later time have enough information to complete the project eventually, or to maintain and enhance a completed project. Students, therefore, must make a careful analysis to determine how much they can get done in the time allotted them.
The project process is specified in such a way as to allow students some flexibility in tailoring the process to various methodologies. However, enough guidance is provided by the process so that the student does not have to start with a blank page and wonder what to do.
The objectives of the project process are: