Project Report 1

Dave Inman

Project reportProject report

Project Report 2

Ways to write a reportWays to write a report

• Top down:• Write the structure of the report (maybe use the web

templates as a starting point)• Fill in the structure later, section by section

• Bottom Up• Write each section as you complete the work• Arrange the sections when they are complete

Which approach do you think is best?Which approach do you think is best?

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The big questionThe big question

Your project report is like a journey. It needs a signpost

• It starts from the big question/s your project will answer...

• it takes the reader through what you did and found out...

• to an answer to the big questions.

Keep the big question in focus throughoutKeep the big question in focus throughout

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What must I deliver?What must I deliver?

• A project report, bound with number and year on spine delivered to your supervisor and 2nd assessor direct.

• An MS Word copy of your report to a network server - this is your dated receipt.

• A stand / table at the project presentation day.

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Who is the report for?Who is the report for?

• Your supervisor

• Your second assessor

• The external examiners

• Your employers

Your reader is intelligent, knows Your reader is intelligent, knows about IT but nothing about your about IT but nothing about your

project.project.

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When should I start the When should I start the report?report?

• As soon as you have finished a chapter

• At the end of term 1 write draft introduction and research chapter

• For research based project write up initial research by end of term 1.

• As you see the chapters building up it will let you see your progress.

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How big should my How big should my report be?report be?

• 10-20,000 words

• 1.5 - 3 cm when bound

• a PhD is 30,000 words!

• Don’t pad

• Don’t omit essential detail

• Use appendices wisely if getting close to upper limit.

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A typical BIT project: A typical BIT project: sectionssections

• Title

• Abstract

• Contents

• Acknowledgements

• Introduction

• Research

• Synthesis of research

• Data collection and analysis

• Summary of your findings

• Executive summary

• Future work

• Conclusions

• Bibliography

• Appendices

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A typical CS project : A typical CS project : sectionssections

• Title

• Abstract

• Contents

• Acknowledgements

• Introduction

• Technical review

• Design

• Building the system & testing

• Future work

• Conclusions

• Bibliography

• Appendices

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The abstractThe abstract

• Half a page on the whole project. A big title.

• Write in the present tense. e.g.. "This project tackles the problem of.. using the techniques of ....

• The purpose of an abstract is to inform a potential reader of the whole content of a report

• This is a difficult task and should be left until the report is complete.

• Look at previous project reports.

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The introductionThe introduction

• What is the project about?

• What problems were tackled?

• Why do these problems need solutions?

• What existing methods have been tried?

• What constraints do you have?

• Machines • Languages. • Who uses the system

• What broad approach was taken?

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The conclusionsThe conclusions

• Overview of what the the project achieved

• A reflection on the whole project

• How far were the objectives achieved?

• What you would tell a student/friend about the project

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Future workFuture work

• Things you wanted to do but couldn’t

• Why should you do them?

• Why didn’t you?

• What you would do in a different way & why?

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ReferencesReferences

These should be presented as two separate sections:

a reference section listing specific references made in the text,

a bibliography listing general literature, relating to the project, that has been read.

In both cases list, in alphabetical order, the author(s), title, publisher, edition, volume , pages and date.

For the web include date accessed.

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AppendicesAppendices

• The appendices should contain all information which is relevant to the project but is not required in such detail in order to understand the content.

• You might include: Detailed theory/algorithms

Survey data / results

Program listings / screenshots

Research findings in detail

Full test results

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Research chapters 1/2Research chapters 1/2

Review of approaches / sources SBU library search of journals, books, CD-

ROM, on-line databases. British reference library search of journals,

books, CD-ROM, on-line databases. SBU staff suggestions of reading. Library to help with on-line database searches. Web resources.

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Research chapters 2/2Research chapters 2/2

Conclusions about existing work What has been achieved? What are shortcomings? In outline what will you use of existing work?

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Synthesis chaptersSynthesis chapters

• Your own conclusions /synthesis

• Your own thoughts.

• Questions you need to answer to "test your ideas"

• How to find answers to these questions.

• What other approaches / hypotheses could you have tested?

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Data collection chaptersData collection chapters

• What data do you need to collect? Interviews

Questionnaires

Literature search

• How did you design a questionnaire / conduct interviews?

• How did you attempt to get plenty of results?

• What data did you (re) use from existing sources?

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Summary of your findingsSummary of your findings

• Research findings

• Analysis of data collected

• Integration of new data - testing your hypotheses

• Executive summary

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Technical review 1/3Technical review 1/3

Review of algorithms / approaches to solve problems identified.

SBU library search of journals, books, CD-ROM, on-line databases.

British reference library search of journals, books, CD-ROM, on-line databases.

SBU staff suggestions of reading. Library to help with on-line database searches.

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Technical review 2/3Technical review 2/3

A review of any existing applications software or specialist software that tries to tackle the problems above.

• Platform / Languages / Methodologies to use What are factors to consider?

What alternatives are there?

How do they measure up against the factors above

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Technical review 3/3Technical review 3/3

Conclusions about existing work What has been achieved? What are shortcomings? In outline what will you use of existing work?

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DesignDesign

• Your own design based on the section above.

• Your own thoughts.

• What design did you end up with?

• What were the reasons for the final design?

• What were the intermediate designs that you rejected (brief)?

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Building the system & Building the system & testingtesting

• Project management & planning.

• Approach you took to building, debugging, testing

Rapid prototyping?

Structured approaches (e.g. JSP)

• Test programme What test data did you use?

What / who did you test it on?

What did you change as a result of testing?

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Finally : read and Finally : read and modify draftmodify draft

• Spell check - grammar check?

• Get a friend who does not know your project to read it:

Can they understand it?

Do they like it?

What errors did they spot?

• Supervisor will ask for a draft before Easter break

• As a minimum you must show a contents page, introduction and some other sections.

• Supervisor will advise on content only.

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An exerciseAn exercise

• Read any report from the past projects of interest to you.

Don’t read the abstract

• Then write a half page abstract based on what you read.

• Compare with the original abstract.• Did you get the main points?• Did you introduce the project concisely?

• If you can do this, you will be able to help your reader understand your project.

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Sources of more Sources of more informationinformation

See references in project guide Economist style guide:

http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/