Keeping Our Customers Happy: Myths and Management Issues in "Client-Led" Student Software Projects

In this paper we seek to dispel some of the myths and to address some of the real managerial issues which we believe may have deterred academics from involving commercial and industrial partners as customers in students' software project work. We contend that students know when a project is phoney, when requirements are dreamt up by academics and when the deliverables are of no practical use once a project mark has been assigned. The involvement of an external customer materially affects students' motivation, the quality of work that they produce and their sense of achievement. Put simply, authenticity is the key to a rich, challenging and meaningful educational project experience.