Choosing a project and writing a

proposal
Choosing Project
Identifying your project can be the most difficult stage of all.
When choosing your project, important principles to be considered
are as follows:

• You must be capable of doing the proposed project in the time

available. You must ensure that your project is not overly
ambitious and that you have all the relevant skills needed (for
example, don’t choose a project in an area where you have
failed subjects before).

• As part of your project you may want to broaden your

knowledge by developing new skills or enhancing existing
skills. If so, be sure to allow sufficient time for these
tasks.
 Choose a project that interests you.
Remember,
will be youworking on your project
for probably six months or
more.
It is important that you enjoy your work and
do not become bored or lose motivation during this
time.
• Consider personal development and choose a
project that will assist you in your goals. Personal
your
development planning is defined by The Higher
Education Academy (2008) as

‘a structured and supported process undertaken by an

individual to reflect upon their own learning,
performance and/or achievement and to plan
for their personal, educational and career
development’

• Your personal development plan may help you identify a

project or choose from a number of ideas you might be
considering. Projects that support you in
reaching your personal goals would take priority over
those that do not. When choosing a project,
consider your future career plans/goals. This may
influence your project choice.
• Your project should have a serious purpose and a clear outcome
that will benefit someone.

• By securing a real client for your project you will get a much
clearer, more relevant set of project objectives. You will also be
more motivated, knowing you are working for someone other
than yourself (you won’t want to let them down).

• Having a real client will also help with your project’s

management as you will be expected to produce deliverables to
the client by specific dates.
• Your project should have a clear outcome (in terms of
deliverables) that focuses your work and direction. Without a
clear target, you may lose your focus and motivation as your
project progresses.

• Your project should link suitably with your degree course. Your
project should have sufficient scope and quality to fit the
requirements of your course.

• Your project idea should be something that interests you, but not
a personal issue about which you may have a subjective view
that could affect your perspective and influence your results.

• The resources you require for your project should be available

or can be obtained.
Techniques and Information
Sources
• Lecturers’/departmental lists
• Industrial projects
• Past projects
• Talking with colleagues
• Reading around subject areas
• Clustering
• Brainstorming
 CHAPTER BREAKDOWN

Once you have an idea for your project, it is good to identify how your
project will break down into a number of chapters for the final report.

If you have difficulty identifying a number of specific chapters for your

final report, it may mean you are unclear about the project’s detail and
don’t really understand what it is you hope to achieve.

Breaking down your project into chapters will also give you an indication
of its scope. If you can identify only two or three chapters, maybe your
project is not sufficiently broad. Conversely, if you can identify ten or more
chapters you may be trying to do too much.
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
The ‘so what?’ test
• To ensure that you do not pursue a project that has little value,
take the ‘so what?’ test (Herbert, 1990: 7). Ask yourself, Is the
topic meaningful? If you complete the project successfully, will
it be of value to anybody? What contribution will it make?
 Justification

You should be able to explain your project and justify it (that is,
pass the ‘so what?’ test) in simple terms to EVERYONE?

Even if your explanation is too technical or deep for the average

person to understand, if you can explain it in simple terms
indicates that the topic is clear to you.
Numerating your
understanding

If you can put a number on how much you know about your chosen
subject; it means that you have, at least, a concept of that field of study
and an awareness of its magnitude.

If you have no idea what your understanding is, you have no idea of
your subject area’s depth or breadth and to undertake a project in this
area would be very risky.
Numerating your
understanding

This principle was initially presented by Lord Kelvin, who stated:

«When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in
numbers, you know something about it: when you cannot measure it,
cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is inadequate and
unsatisfactory.»
Numerating your
understanding

This idea, of being aware of the sum total of your

understanding about a specific topic, is sometimes
referred to as metaknowledge.
Contacts.

• When you identify the contacts you require for your project, are
they available, accessible and willing to help? For example, do
you have contacts within a local company who have volunteered
to help you with a case study?

• If not, your project will face problems that need to be dealt with
sooner or later.
What do you already know?

Orna and Stevens (1995: 29) suggest that, as you identify your
research area, you also think about what relevant
information you already know or have access to.

You might also identify what you want to learn by conducting

your project.
Ethical issues
Most institutions have procedures in place to assess, evaluate,
monitor and control ethical issues when approving student projects.

Most projects in computer science and information systems

generally do not raise ethical issues.

However, if you plan to involve others in your project in any way

you may well need to obtain ethical clearance for the project
from your department, university etc.
Data protection
If your project will handle any personal information relating to living
people, you need to be aware of the Data Protection Act (DPA) and its
restrictions on your project.

The main principles of data protection include:

• Data should only be used for the specific purpose for which it
was gathered in the first place.
• Individuals have the right to access data held about them.
• Data may not be disclosed to third parties without permission of the
individual.
• If personal data are kept, these data must be appropriately
protected.
• Personal data should be kept for no longer than necessary.
9. Arrange contents list, index.

Leave the completion of an index (if one is required) and your

contents list until the end.

Only then will you know the exact content of your report and all
page numbers.
Recruiting participants for projects

• Selection criteria – should be unbiased and lead to

a reasonable cross-section of participants.
• Permission that will be required from participants
should be clear.
• Financial incentive or otherwise to take part (which
may affect the objectivity of the results)?
• Decision on whether participants be able to
withdraw at any stage (this should be allowed) or
not should be taken.
Vulnerable
groups
• children, pregnant women, people with a mental illness,
prisoners, people over 65, etc should be protected.
Ethical clearance is needed to ensure that the result of
the project will not affect this group of people.

• The data collected from this group of people should

be carefully analyzed.
 Trainin
g

you or participants of the project may require training in order to

undertake the project (for example, from hardware or software
applications to dealing with vulnerable groups)?
Preparing a project proposal
• In most institutions, you are required to prepare a proposal for
your project so it can be assessed for acceptability.

• Proposal can serve as a contract between you, your department

and project supervisor.

• In many cases, projects can and do change direction as they

proceed; as you become more aware of the topic area and the
problem which you are investigating.

• If this were the case, you would need to obtain permission for
significant changes and possibly have to submit a new proposal.
Two golden rules for preparing the proposal

• Follow any guidelines precisely. Most institutions

require specific information; for example, project title,
project objectives, resource requirements and so forth.
Failure to complete these sections may mean your
proposal is rejected without even being read,

• Proofread thoroughly and get someone else to check it.

Any errors or omissions will appear sloppy and put
your commitment and proposed project in a bad light.
There are no universal standards for project

proposals, although all proposals should include

certain pieces of information. This content emerges

from your proposal’s implicit content and explicit

sections.
 Implicit
content
Introduction to the subject area.

Current research in the field.

Identify a gap.

Identify how your work fills the gap.

Identify risks and solutions.

 Explicit sections
• Title: This should be clear and concise. Try to avoid
using acronyms if possible.

• Aims and objectives:

Aims identify at the highest level what it is you hope to achieve with
your project.

Objectives identify specific, measurable achievements that build

towards the ultimate aim of your project. They are more precise than
aims
 Expected
outcomes/deliverables
• This section of your proposal will identify precisely what
you intend to submit at the end of the project.

Keywords

• Keywords are used to identify the topic areas your project draws on.
People use keywords to see at a glance what subjects your project relates
to which might not be clear from your project’s title alone.
• The first page of the report needs to have an introduction.

• You will explain the problem and show the reader why the
report is being made.

• You need to explain how the details of the report are

arranged.
Introduction/background/overview
• This section provides an overview of your project and
introduces the background work to it.

• In this section you might wish to include reasons why you

feel you are a suitable candidate for performing the project
(why you feel you can do it, what skills are required and
how you fulfil these requirements), why the topic interests
you specifically, and why you chose the project in the first
place.

• This section might also include an introduction to the

industry or organisation being investigated or evaluated.
Related research

• This section identifies other work, publications and research

related to your topic.

Type of project
• You might wish to identify the type of project you are
undertaking, for example, research-based, development,
evaluation, etc.

• However, make sure these terms are recognised and

provide more detail if appropriate.
Research questions and hypotheses

The project proposal may also include the research question

you intend to investigate and, hopefully, answer to some
extent within your project.

Computing projects do not necessarily set out to answer

particular questions, but for some projects (particularly
research degree projects) a statement of your research
question is essential.
Methods
Research methods would include action research, case study,
survey and experiment

Resource requirements
Resource requirements for the project include hardware,
software and access to particular computers

Project plan
• This emphasises project is ‘feasible’ in the time
allowed;

• The best way to present a project plan is by using a

visual representation such as a Gantt chart.
Style
The style of writing that you adopt to present your report can be discussed from three
points of view.

• First is the actual presentation style of your report – for example, its layout, font size
and so on. This kind of style was discussed earlier.

• Second is the style of grammar that you use within your report. Quite often good
reports can be ruined by poor grammar. The author’s meaning is unclear as ideas
and results are hidden within long complex sentences that include excessive words
and jargon.

• The third point of view is overall content structure and this will be discussed
further later.
Reviewing your proposal
The second golden rule for preparing a project proposal states that
you should proofread your complete proposal thoroughly for
spelling mistakes, omissions and grammatical errors.

Choosing your supervisor

1. What are their records in terms of student completions?’
2.‘What are their views on the management of student research –
and, in particular, the supervisor’s role in it?’
3. ‘How eminent are they in their specialisms?’
4.‘In addition to being knowledgeable about their subjects, have
they high competence in research methodology?’
5. ‘How accessible are they likely to be?’