1. University of Greenwich

2. Introduction to Undergraduate Projects

3. What is a final year project?
A sustained piece of individual work of between 150 and 200 hours
Planned by you with guidance from your supervisor and the project lectures
Written up by you as a Project report of around 12,000 words (min 10,000, max 15,000)
Assessed on your Report (+ Product) and a Demonstration by your supervisor and a second-marker. The final grade is moderated and externally examined.

4. What is a final year project?
A project with outcome that can map onto the systems lifecycle
where you are the consultant
Doing work on behalf of a (virtual) client
short timescale
low budget
Deliverables
Product
Report
Presentation

5. Why your project is important!
It is your main opportunity to carry out an important, individual piece of work
Your project counts for ¼ of your final year
It will be used when writing references for you – for work or for further study

6. What are we looking for? Discovery of information
read, research, investigate, gather
Application of what you have learned
to do something useful. This also involves some self teach for the project
Professional approach
applying all those personal and professional skills

7. What are we looking for? Documentation of your achievements
documentation is an important part of software
your (virtual) client has paid you lots of money to do this project for them
you need to convince them that you did a good job
you need to be assessed
you need to convince your assessors your work is good
Demonstration of insight
show awareness of your strengths and weaknesses
your project's strengths and weaknesses

8. Deliverables 1. Project Proposal 2. Initial Report 3. Interim Report
4. Completed Project (Report + Implementation)
5. Demonstration

9. What is assessed Three final deliverables Project Report Product
Research,
Design process,
Development process,
Evaluation
Product
Demonstration of your product, ideas and knowledge to your supervisor and second marker

10. What should you do now?
Set objectives then tasks for your project. Three general objectives :
Research
Build (Analysis, Design, Implementation)
Or analysis, discuss outcomes, recommendations
Evaluate
Collect as much information as you can about your project
Write a draft project proposal based on your plan so far and what you know
Show it to your supervisor

11. A Suitable Topic Projects should be... narrow; well defined scope;
deep of academic interest;
relevant to your degree;
current with regard to techniques and technologies;
novel with no re-inventing of wheels;
achievable within the limited timescale.

12. Unsuitable Topic Projects should not be...
Broad with wide scope cf. impractical
Superficial and of no academic interest
Irrelevant to your degree
Developed with old techniques and technologies
Conventional in that we have seen it all before
Impractical because it is overambitious and attempting far too much cf. broad

13. Web Applications
Your project should identify a specific web application
Something that is
Unusual eg built with emerging technology;
Novel ie totally new application.
Focus on what makes your web application different
Are you attempting something that is less ambitious than a coursework?

14. Web Project Titles Bad title Better title
Building a web enabled library system database
Investigation of role based access in a web enabled database using a library system as an example
Creating a web enabled hair dresser booking system
Use of software design patterns in the creation of a web application using a hair dresser booking exemplar
A web enabled pizza ordering system
An investigation into suggestive product composition using a web based pizza ordering system demonstrator
Scheduling and load balancing for distributed JIT production using a web based pizza ordering system demonstrator

15. Record the process Upload through the project website:
project proposal which must be agreed by supervisor before you can continue
initial report - literature study/data collection
interim report -
electronic diary (make sure you add to it regularly!)
Keep notes and records of all your different ideas including what did and didn’t work
Save versions of your work

16. A project plan for you to follow
Collect data and research
Evaluate and conclude
implement something specific
Come up with a good idea
Failing to plan is planning to fail!

17. What should a BIS project be about?
Come up with a good idea
An IS project should be to build something involving the design and implementation of a system. It can also be about producing something that maps onto the system life cycle. It should be concerned with:
understanding aspects about information systems
applying principles from other courses (or elsewhere)
understanding and modelling problems
reflecting and appraising how to build information systems

18. What would the final details look like?
Evaluate idea
Requirements Capture/Analysis
user / client / peer / supervisor / employer
Research – theory /concepts
Review – existing products
Analysis
Design,
Develop, Build
Test
based on req. analysis
Evaluate
product and process

19. What would the final details look like?
Evaluate idea
Requirements Capture/Analysis
user / client / peer / supervisor / employer
Research – theory /concepts
Review – existing products/cases
Analysis
Develop Recommenda-tions that map onto lifecyle
Evaluate
product and process

20. Some advice 10+ hours a week on your project
Keep realistic – you may not be able to achieve all you want to do but a PLAN will help you sort this out.
Don’t hide from your supervisor – they can’t help you if they don’t see any of your work.

21. How to fail your project
Don’t plan
Don’t produce specifications, analysis or designs
Avoid your supervisor
Start as late as possible
Don’t prepare for any meeting or presentation
Make sure anything you hand in is unreadable
Don’t ask for support.

22. Report Sections Preamble: title, abstract, contents
Beginning: approx 25%
Middle: approx 55%
End: approx 20%
References:
only include references which are cited in the report – others put in a Bibliography
strict Harvard formatting
Appendices
lengthy technical material, test results, user guide, etc.
Word count

23. Beginning Introduction: Research discovering information
aims, justification
why are you doing this project?
Outline the rest of the report
Research
discovering information
your approach to finding information
credible sources
documenting your discoveries
discussion of your source material
clear referencing
conclusions
summary of what you have discovered

24. Middle Methodology Requirements Analysis and Specification Technology
describe your chosen approach
remember: this is a short timescale project and you are a team of one
Requirements Analysis and Specification
preparation, gather requirements and analysis
Technology
identify the technology you have chosen to use
avoid regurgitating superficial technical material
justify your decisions
Design
plan what you intend to implement - schemas, architectures, UML, and so on
Implementation
describe what you have done
Testing
discuss your approach to testing
provide evidence of testing
analyse and discuss your test results

25. End Reflection Critical evaluation of the three ‘P’s
possibly the most important part of your report
Critical evaluation of the three ‘P’s
Process – the project
what went well/wrong?
would you do it differently next time?
Product – the thing you made
what is good/bad about it?
what is the next step in the development?
Person - you
how have you changed during the project?
what skills did you bring?
what skills did you develop?
All projects are open to some criticism
this should come from you
as opposed to from your assessors

26. Referenced Material
You must show that you have discovered information by reading books, papers, articles, etc.
written by other people and published somewhere
credible authors and publications
Your text must contain references (citations) to these sources
Text that is copied from your sources must be formatted in "full quotation marks and italic font" and clearly identified with a citation
copied text can be good but avoid using too much
Borrowed material such as pictures, figures, tables etc., must be similarly identified
graphical content must not float
it must have a title and be referenced in the body of the text

27. References A list of the source material cited in the report
only include material that is cited in the text
must be credible sources
not Wikipedia, no DIY books, no dummies guides
apart from when it is really needed
must be accurate
must be correctly formatted
If you have no credible sources then find some
and find a way of including them

28. Bibliography
This is where you list books, journals and websites that informed your work but was not directly cited in your work.

29. Appendices The word count of your report is limited
if you exceed the word count push some content into an appendix
Appendices are good for...
lengthy technical material
boring detail that would not fit in the report body
all that UML
source code - if you really need to include it
data sheets from third parties
minutes of meetings
installation / user guide for your product
all those screen shots
test results
Appendices should not float
they should be mentioned / described in the body of the report
...further discussion of this can be found in Appendix D

30. The role of the supervisor
They will approve your project proposal and support you in your project but they are not there to do the work for you.
They are your assessor, virtual client and critical friend.
You must talk to your supervisor
you need to be proactive in arranging meetings
you should take an agenda to each meeting
you must record the meeting - take minute and include evidence of these meetings in your report
the University of Greenwich

31. What students may expect but it is not within the supervisor’s role to:
Rewrite/finalise the project proposal.
Tell them what to do.
Edit/rewrite drafts, write the software or configure the hardware.
Provide detailed feedback when it is submitted late without an agreed extension.
Give detailed feedback on the summary, conclusions and evaluation.
Negotiate on their behalf for an extension.

32. How to fail your project
Don’t plan
Don’t produce specifications, analysis or designs
Avoid your supervisor
Start as late as possible
Don’t prepare for any meeting or presentation
Make sure anything you hand in is unreadable
Don’t ask for support.

33. How to pass the project Create a plan and keep it realistic.
Make contingency plans in case things go wrong.
Spend 10+ hours a week on your project
Meet the deadlines
Don’t hide from your supervisor – they can’t help you if they don’t see any of your work.

34. Questions ?

35. For next week…