Vestigia¶
Tracing the Work Behind the Work¶
Most final-year projects leave behind two things: a submission and a gap.
The submission is assessed, archived, and filed. The gap is everything that led to it — the decisions made under uncertainty, the approaches that failed, the moments where the work shifted direction, the thinking that happened between the commits and the meetings and the drafts. That gap is where most of the actual learning lived. And for most students, it disappears entirely by the time the project ends.
Vestigia exists to close that gap.
It is a framework for recording project work as it happens, making sense of it when the project is done, and presenting it in a way that is honest, professional, and genuinely useful — for portfolios, showcases, interviews, and whatever comes next.
How Vestigia Is Organised¶
Vestigia is structured around two phases that run sequentially, with an optional third layer that groups can build in parallel.
Guide A — During the Project¶
Guide A runs while you are actively working on your project. It asks a focused question: what is worth capturing, and how should I capture it?
It draws on the long professional tradition of the engineering log book, the lab notebook, and the project diary — adapted for the reality of contemporary student projects, which are digital, often distributed, and usually collaborative.
Guide A is not about writing more. It is about writing earlier, lighter, and honestly — recording the moments that actually shaped the work, while they are still fresh enough to record accurately.
The material you build in Guide A is what Guide B works with. Start here.
Guide B — After the Project¶
Guide B begins when the project ends. It asks a different question: what does what I recorded actually mean, and how do I present it?
This is where raw records become professional evidence. Guide B teaches you to extract what is significant from your accumulated material, connect your thinking to your project artefacts, and present your contribution in a way that is simultaneously honest and credible — suitable for portfolios, CVs, LinkedIn, and the kinds of conversations interviews involve.
Guide B is harder than Guide A. It requires judgement, not just attention. But if you did Guide A, you have the material to do it well.
Shared Presence — Optional¶
Some groups choose to build a collective, outward-facing presence for their project — a group website, a shared portfolio page, or another form of collective visibility that communicates what the project is and who is behind it, to clients, supervisors, and external readers.
The Shared Presence section provides guidance for groups who want to do this well, across a range of disciplines and platform choices. Participation is entirely optional.
What Vestigia Is Not¶
It is worth being direct about what Vestigia does not do.
Vestigia is not a replacement for your institution's project manual, your subject handbook, or any formal submission requirements. It does not prescribe tools, platforms, or formats. It does not add mandatory deliverables.
It does not tell you what to build. It supports how you think while building.
A note on discipline
Vestigia is written primarily with Computer Science, IT, and Engineering students in mind — disciplines where the log book tradition is most deeply rooted, and where Agile methodology, client projects, and full-stack development create the most immediate need for intentional record-keeping.
The framework is discipline-agnostic in practice. If your project involves decisions, iteration, and learning over time — regardless of discipline — Vestigia applies to you.
The Connection to Itan¶
Vestigia is part of the same open educational ecosystem as Itan, a broader portfolio development framework for students and professionals across all disciplines.
If Guide B helps you develop a showcase for your final-year project, Itan is where you go to build the wider portfolio context around it — connecting your capstone work to everything else you have made, learned, and become.
The two frameworks are designed to work together. Vestigia captures the project. Itan places it in the larger story of your professional development.
For Lecturers and Supervisors¶
A full orientation to the framework — what it is, how it works in practice, and how it relates to existing assessment structures — is available in the For Lecturers section.
Vestigia sits alongside existing modules without requiring structural change. Engagement with it is entirely at professional discretion.
Where to begin
If you are a student at the start of your final-year project: go to Guide A.
If your project is already underway or complete: start with Guide A — Foundations to understand the framework, then move to wherever in the sequence reflects where you are.
If you are a supervisor or module coordinator: For Lecturers is written for you.