Member Avatar for wherrelz

I find a lot of students studying computer science or BSc IT who realize they have a project to submit in their final year and are clueless what to do and how to go about it. Surely there are people who can help guide in this, however a comprehensive list is hard to find (or non-existant). I wanted to get a list together so our soon-to-be-graduates have a place to look to.

And what better place than daniweb.

If you help final year students (engineering, bachelors, computer science, IT) I'd be most obliged if you can write about what you can help people with.

Disclaimer: I was running an IT Services company until 2009 and currently work with a startup as head of IT. I give tuition and help students with their final year projects - primarily from an analytical guidance perspective.

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Dani AI

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As noted, a lot of final-year CS/BSc IT students have never seen or run a complete, end-to-end project; as also pointed out, some expect the end product handed to them. Below is a compact, practical playbook that fills that gap: a clear set of deliverables, a sensible milestone schedule, and mentor-friendly rules that protect academic integrity while giving students real learning.

Common deliverables (one-line intent in parentheses)

  • Project proposal (problem statement, objectives, scope, 1-page timeline).
  • Requirements spec (functional and non-functional requirements; acceptance criteria).
  • High-level design (architecture diagram, data model, chosen tech stack).
  • Implementation repo (Git history, branch strategy, minimal CI where possible).
  • Test plan and test cases (unit, integration, acceptance tests tied to requirements).
  • User guide + developer notes (how to run, how to extend).
  • Final report and presentation (method, results, lessons learned) and a short demo recording.

Suggested 6-month milestone plan

  • Month 1: Idea, literature/precedent check, supervisor sign-off on proposal.
  • Month 2: Requirements, design, simple prototype or wireframes.
  • Month 3: Core feature development (MVP) and basic tests.
  • Month 4: Feature completion, integration testing, user feedback loop.
  • Month 5: Polish, performance fixes, deployment or demo environment.
  • Month 6: Report writing, presentation prep, viva rehearsal, final submission.

Practical rules, troubleshooting and mentor guidance

  • Insist on evidence: weekly commits, an issue tracker and short progress notes avoid "black box" submissions.
  • Scope down ruthlessly: deliver a small, working MVP plus documentation rather than an unfinished sprawling system.
  • When stuck, reproduce the bug, add an automated test that fails, then fix it — that sequence documents progress.
  • Mentors should provide conceptual reviews, grading rubrics, documentation checks and code review comments, but avoid doing substantive implementation for students.
  • Academic caution: encourage originality, use similarity checks where required, and record authorship (commit history, timestamps) to protect both students and supervisors.

This checklist and schedule give concrete structure that complements the thread discussion and makes supervision practical rather than ad hoc.

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Member Avatar for jwenting

the main problem is that the vast majority of them don't want constructive help, they want their entire project done for them, handed to them on a golden platter, so they can submit it as their own and get that diploma to wave around at recruiters.

If they'd done any real work at all in their studies before, they'd be able to come up with a project proposal (especially as they would have a teacher assisting them, and/or someone in industry if they're going to be attached to a company as an intern).
But those people you won't find here asking "give me final year project idea", they're not going to ask questions that can be distinguished from a junior professional asking for help on details of their first jobs.
What we get instead are the lazy ones who've been partying for years rather than studying, and expect to now go on partying rather than working.

Member Avatar for wherrelz

J, I get that - in fact since I've been trying to help these guys with their project work I see it in person - and it's a very real situation.

However another thing I've seen myself:
1. They don't know what an end-to-end project is because they've never, honestly seen anything like it. All they've seen are programs that someone made and nothing beyond. (I've seen this myself)
2. Their teachers sometimes are not in a position to be able to help - I have tried to speak with CS department HODs are my alma mater and I find they're good people but not able to help with a complete project. Not even concept. Or documentation.
3. The study workload may not be infinitely high, but then its more important than the value of a good complete project - so students tend to spend more time on theory and practicals and goodness knows what else.
4. Some students DO actually manage to make programs (not full fledged projects) and they're usually the early birds that come out to ask for help - but they lack focus and direction.

I was a student myself not too long ago and my projects stole the show every time. If we offer more help can we not make everyone's project so spectacular that the judges really have to CHOOSE?

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