Current research in the field. This will emphasise that your project is not based in

54 Chapter 3 n Choosing a project and writing a proposal It is also worth mentioning the importance of maintaining research symmetry with respect to research questions and hypotheses. Research symmetry implies that your ‘results will be of similar value whatever you find out’ Gill and Johnson, 2002 cited by Saunders et al, 2007: 20. With this in mind, it is important to realise the implications of the hypotheses you have stated. If they are true you must ask yourself ‘so what – was that really worth proving?’ Thus, each hypothesis you state should have a similar value if proved. Methods This section describes the research and project methods you will use in performing your project. This section should not identify methods that you might be investigating as part of your project, but those methods you are actually using. It might include development methods that you are using as part of a systems development for example, SSADM; survey methods for a case study evaluation and evaluation methods for comparing two or more systems. Research methods would include those introduced in Chapter 2, such as action research , case study, survey and experiment. Resource requirements You might need to identify any resource requirements for your project, such as hard- ware, software and access to particular computers. If you have access to particular resources, this fact should be pointed out in this section. Quite clearly, if the resources for your project are not available in your department, or are too expensive to obtain, your project will be unacceptable. However, if you know you need a particular piece of software or hardware, you must find out its cost and include this information within this section. A proposal that omits this information may be rejected if the assessor does not know how inexpensive or available the item is and might assume it is beyond your project’s budget. Note, if you are relying on an external source a company, for example for computer access, hardware, software, case studies and the like, it will be your responsibility to en- sure these are available and to bear any risk if the resources fail. While your department will accept responsibility if something goes wrong with your project because their own software or hardware fails, they will not be responsible for external sources of support that you have arranged. Within this section or under a separate heading, you might include a list of the lit- erature you will need to perform your project – for example, specific journals, com- pany reports, books, etc. If these materials are unavailable, realistically speaking, your project may be impracticable and you may need to change its focus. Access to partic- ular companies for performing case studies could also be identified here. Without this access your project might flounder, so it is important to show you have contacts that can be utilised. Project plan It is very useful to present a project plan as part of your proposal. This emphasises that the project is ‘doable’ in the time allowed; it shows that you have some idea of the work