Your Project Proposal

Title
 Basics
• A project proposal is the first important document
that you will produce for your project
• It includes your plan of how you will go about your
project
• It needs to be agreed by your supervisor
• Your supervisor should advise you of the level of
your project using this document
… but this advice is impossible if the proposal is too
vague, generic, lacks specific objectives, hasn’t been
properly researched
 project proposals
The project proposal demonstrates that:
• you have thought the proposed project
through
• it is achievable in the time available
• it is of the right academic level
• it is has the right content for your
programme.
• It should be ready by the deadline date
 What you will need in your Proposal

• A Title, your Name and Programme

• A list of Key Words or Phrases
• A Brief outline of the Project (the Aim)
 Describe in half a page what you plan to achieve
in your project; remember the basic breakdown
into three tasks “What will I research”, “What
will I build”, “How will I evaluate it”.
• A set of Objectives
 Break down your Project into smaller objectives
 and …
• A list of lecture courses you have taken that are directly
relevant
Web Engineering …
• List all needed resources
hardware, software, …
• Your references
Useful books and journal articles.
• Critical success factors
What are the critical activities, people or resources that can
make or break your project ?
 the Title and Keywords
• Your research and reading will help you identify a list of
keywords that are directly relevant to your project e.g.
 Database integration, native XML databases, security,
access control, hotel management systems ….
• Once you have a good keyword list you can easily
construct a title by making use of the really important
keywords
 Brief outline or Project Aim
• Tell the story of the project in a concise logical way –
think of how you would describe it to a friend over a
coffee.
• Focus on the essentials of your project – those things
that your project will deliver.
• Check back on this once you have written down your
objectives (next …)
Goal: It is a broad statement that defines what you plan
to do in a project. It gives an idea to the reader of what
problem your organization intends to address.
 Objectives
Objective: These are detailed statements describing the ways
through which you intend to achieve the goal.

Objectives should address the 5 Ws: While framing the

objectives ensure that they provide answers to the 5Ws:
• Why: are you proposing a particular thing?
• What: approach will you adopt to reach the desired goal?
• When: will you conduct the particular project?
• Where: will you implement the project?
• Who: will be the primary stakeholders/beneficiaries or who
will be doing a particular thing in a project?
This is an easy way to frame objectives that provide detailed
strategy for accomplishing the desired impact.
 Objectives
the SMART acronym reminds you that objectives must
be:

Specific – An Objective can't be vague – be specific

Measurable - Define a method of measuring the
objective so you know when it is achieved
Agreed-To/Achievable - you and your supervisor need
to agree to the objective, and it also must be do-able
Realistic/Rewarding - It must be a realistic objective,
and it must make sense to do it
Time-related - without a schedule and due date, it will
just keep going, and going, and going...
 so …
• All your Objectives should have clear titles e.g.
“Research current hotel management systems that
attempt database integration”
• Objectives should all have deliverables, i.e. they can
be measured – (how far have I got?)
you will know when the objective is achieved
because you will have the deliverable ready
• Objectives should be agreed with your supervisor
(but you will do all the work )
• Objectives should all contribute directly to your
project and getting a good grade
• Objectives should all have a time schedule
 split things up
Anything complicated benefits from being split into smaller
pieces; (divide and conquer).
• Your Research objective could be split into
background ideas, requirements analysis, problems,
technology review, data gathering (e.g. on similar products,
applications, sites) …
• Your Build objective could be split into
visual design, functional requirements, UML diagrams,
implementation issues …
• Your Evaluate objective could be split into
testing, usability, security …
 make sure that
• You choose sensible objectives
use verbs like: to investigate, to study, to develop, to analyse
and so on
 “One objective is to read that ASP.Net book”.
“Investigate use of ASP in “topic area” websites”
• Each objective or task must
Have a set of known activities (e.g. using electronic databases,
creating UML or code, testing …)
Have a set of deliverables (e.g. the background section of the
introduction chapter, a set of Use Case, a Class Diagram …)
• Once you have defined an objective, estimate how long it will
take you to achieve it (i.e. have all the deliverables)
• Add all your timescales together into your Project Schedule.
 the schedule
• A good proposal will include a schedule showing how
all the individual objectives fit together and timescales
add up
• A Gantt chart is a good way to do this
• If the total time is too long then you need to reduce the
scope (how much you will do) of some of the time-
consuming objectives
 Aim = Sum of Objectives
• A project proposal should be consistent
So look carefully at all your objectives and their
deliverables
• When they are all complete you should have finished
your project with something researched, built and
evaluated.
• When you have completed all the objectives you
should have achieved your Project Aim!
 keep referring back
• Whenever you are uncertain as to whether something
should or should not be included in the project, refer
back to the Project Aim.
• Ask yourself whether a proposed activity supports the
Project’s Aim. If it doesn’t then decide whether you
really need it.
 will this help me?
Yes! For your project to have a high probability of a
success, you must have produced a good proposal and
have
• defined a good set of objectives
• identified how these objectives will be met
• made an assessment of the resources required to
complete the project
• and have shown it to your supervisor
 conclusion
• Work on your project proposal (outline +
objectives + schedule)
• Show a draft to your supervisor and get his/her
comments [by 20th February 2020]
• Deliver it as a hardcopy document by the
deadline date
• A plan can always be modified and improved,
but always discuss changes with your
supervisor
 Example 1.

Goal: Improve livelihood of tribal population of 5 villages in XYZ

District using local resource based approach.

Objective 1. To promote local community based institutions by

formation of 5 Primary Collectors Group to empower the tribal
communities, in XYZ District by the end of first quarter.

Objective 2. To build capacities of 500 tribal families through 10

training sessions on collection, grading and primary processing of
identified products in the first year.

Objective 3. To enhance income of the trained population by 30%

through establishment of sustainable market linkages for the sale of
the NTFP collected, by the end of second year.
 Example 2
Goal: Ensuring quality education to the deprived urban children living slums of
ABC city through a participatory and responsive community action.

Project Objectives:
Objective 1. To enhance awareness of parents in target locations on importance
of education, through 5 sensitization camps to be organized in the first month.

Objective 2. To develop child friendly education system for imparting quality

education to 200 children aged between 6- 14 yrs, and motivating them towards
formal education system through our evening classes.

Objective 3. Fifty percent of program participants are registered in government

schools by the end of their first year of participation in the program, through
networking and liaising with school authorities.
 Summary
The examples above have broad statements as their goals, but both of these clearly
indicate to the reader what the project intends to do. They are not vague as they
mention about the geographical location, target beneficiaries and the approach for
achieving the respective goals. The three objectives supporting the goal also
clearly define ways of how they would contribute in improving the livelihoods
and ensuring quality education of the primary project beneficiaries respectively.
They follow the SMART principle, answering all the details of why, what, where,
when and who of the project.

Remember that framing goals and objectives is the most important section of the
proposal and it takes time to create meaningful proposal. Setting logical and
articulated objectives will help you to develop a proposal that will have higher
chances to get funded and thereby help you in creating a positive impact in the
society. The simple steps suggested in the guide will help you in taking the first
step of developing a successful proposal.