CS6P05 Project Assignment - London Metropolitan University, UK
The content and format of a project proposal depends on the area of the project. The project is a core module for a number of courses from Computing, Business & IT, Cyber Security and Digital Forensic / Computer Networking.
The British Computer Society accreditation requirement dictates that
"All projects should reflect the aims and learning outcomes which characterise the programme to which they contribute as set out in the programme specification"
Hence, there are specific requirement for the project in each specialist area of your BSc programme, and it is always best to check if your supervisor would like you to add additional information in the proposal which may be specific to your project. The guidelines presented here are therefore general in nature.
PROJECT PROPOSAL -
The project proposal is an agreement between you and your supervisor. It normally has the following minimum sections:
Project Title - This would appear at the top of the page and includes: Your project title, your details, your supervisor details and contacts.
Introduction and Rationale - In this section, you should explain 'why' you are doing the project. A brief overview of the background to the project which highlights the need for the project.
Aims and Objectives - This section defines your project at two levels. At the top level you define your project's aims in terms of the problem to be solved and the end-product of the project. At the second level, concrete and measurable objectives should be identified in order each of the stated aims to be realised and achieved.
Expected Outcomes and Deliverables - This section should give a concise description of the product that will be expected at the end of your project. This could include a piece of software with the technical and user documentation, a computer models and algorithms as a solution for a specific problem, a tailored -made IT / Security solution for a real-world business, etc.
Methodology - This section is to propose a methodological roadmap in order to achieve the expected outcome. It outlines how the project will be undertaken, for example by:
- following a software development methodology (e.g. UML Unified Process, Agile software development);
- conducting a survey using a series of quantitative and qualitative questionnaires;
- developing a computational and/or data analytic model;
- reading and critically reviewing a number of authoritative research papers;
- designing and conducting case studies and/or doing fieldwork; etc
Resource Requirements - This section identifies any resource requirements for your project, for example: -
- specialist hardware and/or software e.g. web hosting service, forensic toolbox;
- access to any external datasets;
- IT system / staff of a specific company;
- specialist research journals and libraries.
Bibliography & References - Here, you need to list 5-7 relevant authoritative printed books, specialist journals, recent research publications of the specialist area of your chosen project topic. This is obviously not a definitive list and can only be one or two references that you have found very useful up until now and you will be referring to throughout your project work. This is especially important for Research / Investigative type of project. The Harvard referencing is should be used for this list.
PROJECT PLAN -
The project plan is an integral part of your project proposal, which shows that your project is feasible and that you have concrete ideas of what work to be done in order to achieve a successful completion of your project, within the available time and resources.
As a minimum your project plan should include: (1) a table of the project WBS activities (see Table 1 attached), (2) a list/graph of milestones and (3) a project Gantt chart.
Project work breakdown structure - In order to develop your project work breakdown structure (WBS) your above listed project's objectives should be further refined using the SMART technique (SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-related).
Given the level of complexity of your undergraduate project I would suggest 3 to 4 relatively disparate areas should be identified from your project's objectives.
It is recommended that the work in each of the areas should be completed within between 4 to 8 weeks. Then each of the identified areas could be further broken down into 2 to 3 activities as in the example above (Source: Dawson, C. (2015), Projects in Computing and Information Systems - A Student Guide, 3rd Edition, page 66. Pearson). For your project, an activity is recommended to have an estimated duration of 2(+ -1) weeks, and there should be no more than a total of 14 activities.
Project milestones - Milestones are critical temporal points in your project life time. They help you to wrap up and appraise the project's interim deliverables during your project process. You should determine your own project milestones being based on your work breakdown structure and the provided CS6P05 project milestones on WebLearn.
Project Activity Sequencing - While the WBS estimates the individual activity's duration the "Activity sequencing" determines the logical, temporal sequence between the activities. For example, the activity "Literature review" cannot be started before the completion of the activity "Literature search" from Figure 4.2 attached. However, "Get stock market data" activity could virtually start soon after the project began, then being concurrently done with the other activities of the WBS from Figure 4.2.
Project Gantt Chart, incorporating Milestones - A Gantt chart is a simple but very effective graphical representation of the results obtained from the project's WBS, milestones and activity sequencing, which were very briefly described above. Attached is an example of a project Gantt chart.
The Length of the Proposal with Project Plan: Normally two A4 pages bust maximum of three A4 pages.
Reading - Dawson, C. (2015), Projects in Computing and Information Systems - A Student Guide, 3rd Edition, Pearson; Chapters 3 and 4.
Attachment:- Project Assignment File.rar