Conducting Your Masters Proposal David A Watt

2 MSc development projects overview semester 3 (summer) Development Project 60 credits Development Proposal 10 credits semester 2 semester 1

3 MRes research projects overview semester 1 semester 2 Research Proposal 20 credits Research Project 60 credits semester 3 (summer)

4 Outline Perform the background work relevant to your project. Meet your supervisor regularly. Submit a written report.

5 Meeting your supervisor (1) Meet your supervisor once per week (30–60 mins). Fix the first meeting date now! Try to fix the remaining meeting dates in advance, for the whole semester.

6 Meeting your supervisor (2) Always listen to your supervisors advice. Nevertheless, it is your project, and you must make your own decisions. You should lead the meetings: –Plan in advance what issues you wish to discuss at the meeting. –Say what you have achieved since the last meeting. –Raise any problems that you wish to discuss. –Say what you hope to achieve before the next meeting.

7 MSc Development Proposal (1) Study the problem domain. Read articles about related projects. Survey related software products: –Test them (if available). –Read their documentation. –Do not rely on sales literature!

8 MSc Development Proposal (2) Critically evaluate previous projects and products: –What are their strengths? (Aim to build on these strengths!) –What are their weaknesses? (Aim to avoid these weaknesses!) Develop a clear statement of the development problem. Choose a suitable development method. Develop a suitable work-plan.

9 MRes Research Proposal (1) Study the problem domain. Review the relevant research literature. Where applicable, survey relevant products. Critically evaluate previous research: –What were its strengths? (Aim to build on these strengths!) –What were its weaknesses? (Aim to avoid these weaknesses!)

10 MRes Research Proposal (2) Develop a clear statement of the research problem. Choose a suitable approach for solving this research problem. Develop a suitable work-plan.

11 Submission Submit a written report (15–25 pages for a MSc Development Proposal; 20–30 pages for a MRes Research Proposal). There will be a seminar on report writing on Wednesday 23 February 2011 (provisionally). Plan to start writing your report about 2–3 weeks before the deadline. Submit one printed copy and one PDF copy of your report. Deadline: Friday 25 March 2011 at 12:00 (except for part-time students).

12 Conclusions Your proposal is important, to ensure that the background work is completed before your project itself starts. Devote the correct amount of time to your proposal: –100 hours (MSc Development Proposal) –200 hours (MRes Research Proposal).