COMP390/393/394/395: Project Report

Background

The purpose of this project report is to provide a complete record of all the work carried out by you.

Deliverables

One printed copy of a dissertation must be submitted to Mrs Janet Lowry in the Student Office (G/F Ashton Building), and its digital version must be submitted through the E-project, both by Thursday 10 May, 2012 (noon). Both versions must be the same and contain all supplementary materials, including the final code (see below for details). WBL students are asked to submit TWO hardcopies. The University late submission policy would apply with respect to the latest of the printed copy and electronic submissions.

Project report: Content and Structure

The project report must be self contained, and contain a complete record of the work carried out. A target of 10,000 words is recommended, with a maximum of 15,000 words. Appendices will not be included in the maximum, but examiners will not normally expect to read appendices in detail. This dissertation should be spiral or thermal bound and use the standard Departmental cover. Binding materials and covers are available from the Student Office. A disc or CD-ROM containing the project archive material (including source codes, pictures used, and the dissertation document) should be submitted with the project report. If necessary, you can use the CD writer in the help desk.

It is recommended that you follow this template for the cover of your dissertation.

The content of the dissertation is at your discretion, and will depend on the nature of the project, but for a typical project involving the development of a piece of software, the following elements of the dissertation would be expected:

1. ABSTRACT

A one-page summary of the project as a whole. This MUST be included for all projects.

2. INTRODUCTION

This will give a brief overview of the project including

• What problem is addressed by the project?
• What are the aims and objectives of the project?
• What are the challenges of the project?
• What is the solution produced?
• How effective is the solution / how successful has the project been?

3. BACKGROUND

This will give all the background of the project including

• Background of the problem to be solved.
• Existing solutions/approaches to the problem, if any exist, and a comparison with the solution produced in the project.
• Reading and research done to understand existing approaches, acquire the necessary information and skills to carry out the project.
• A clear statement of the project requirements.

References to all sources consulted are expected.

4. DESIGN:

This will give a description of the design.

• The organisation of this section should be the same as for the design documentation, and full details of the design are required. Typically it will comprise
  • a description of the anticipated components of the system and how they are to be organised;
  • a description of data structures used by the system;
  • algorithms to manipulate these data structures;
  • a design of the intended interfaces.
• Depending on the project and approach used, the followings are expected (refer to the guideline of the design stage for details):
  • Object-oriented design methodology:
    Use-case diagrams; An interaction chart; The objects to be used in the system; Attributes and methods of objects; Pseudo-code for the key methods; Interface design.
  • Traditional design methodology:
    Data dictionaries; System boundary diagrams; Entity-relationship diagrams; Logical table structures; Physical table structures; Transaction matrix; Pseudo-code for the key methods; Interface design.
  • Empirical investigation of hypothesis: in addition, the following is expected
    A statement of the hypotheses to be tested; A description of the test data to be used; An experiment design, the experiments to be performed, any control to be used; A description of how the results will be analysed, including any statistical techniques that will be used; Anticipated conclusions.
  • Devising new algorithms: in addition, the following is expected
    A description of the approach used to solve the problem; A description of how the new algorithms will be analysed, including mathematical and experimental analysis.
• All design documentation, representing the final design used on the project should be supplied.
• Any modifications made to the design presented in the design documentation and presentation should be stated and justified. ^***

It is often best to include the full details of the design as an appendix. In such a case, the design chapter in the main part of the project report should only discuss the most important elements of the design to your design report and state clearly what other elements will be given in the appendix.

Keep in mind that examiners might not look at all the details of the material included in the appendices. So, make sure that the really important points of the design are explained here.

5. REALISATION

This will give a description of how the design was implemented and a description of the testing of the implementation. The following is expected:

• Description of how the design was implemented for each stage and each component of the system.
• Description of problems encountered during implementation and the solutions to these problems.
• Changes made to the design in the course of implementation and the justification. ^***
• Description of various testing of the implementation of each stage and each component of the system including test cases used, expected results, and actual results.
• Snapshot of code listing of key methods and a small number of screen shots may be included. However, typically, full code listings, detail screen shots, and test runs will appear as appendices.

Again, keep in mind that examiners might not look at all the details of the material included in the appendices. So, make sure that the really important points of the implementation and testing are explained here.

^*** Typically, there are two cases of modifications as compared with the design stage:

1. If the design has been revised since the design stage and the implementation now follows this revised design, the DESIGN section should present the revised design together with comments explaining and justifying the changes.
2. If the design has not been revised since the design stage, but the implementation differs to a lesser or greater extent from that design, the DESIGN section would be pretty much identical to the original design documentation but the REALISATION section would explain the differences between design and implementation.

6. EVALUATION

This gives an evaluation of the project, including

• A description of how the project is evaluated, including
  • What criteria are used to evaluate whether the system is suceesful?
  • How these criteria are assessed?
  • Who is involved in the evaluation?
• A critical appreciation of the strengths and weakness of the project as carried out.
• Customer feedback, where appropriate.

7. LEARNING POINTS

At least one page of summary of the key learning points in the project.

8. PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

At least one page of discussion of how your project related to the codes of practice and conduct issued by the British Computer Society.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

A properly cited list of books, articles and other materials consulted during the project and/or referred to in the dissertation.

10. APPENDICES

Appendices are meant to contain detailed material, required for completeness, but which are too detailed to include in the main body of the text. Typically they should contain code listings, details of test data, screen shots of sample runs, a user guide, full design diagrams, instructions for unpacking and mounting any software included with the dissertation and similar material. A disc or CD-ROM containing the project archive material (including source codes, pictures used, and the dissertation document) should be submitted with the project report. Instructions on how to run the software from the disc/CD-ROM should be provided. If your system is available on-line, you should provide instructions of how to access the system via the internet.

Assessment

The mark for it will count for 60% of the module mark, and it will be marked by your supervisor and the marker. Work Based Learning Projects will also be assessed by the industrial sponsor. The mark of the whole project will be made available on Spider Student Web along with the results for all other modules.

For your guidance a copy of the feedback form that will be used to assess your dissertation is here.