Getting started – project initiation
7.2.4 Hardware failure
In almost all projects these days, computers are used to a greater or lesser extent. They might be used simply to word process your final report or they might be used throughout the entirety of your project as you develop a program or use them to analyse data. Whatever the case you may well find that the computer you use fails and that data and files you are using are lost or erased forever. The only answer to these kinds of problems is to make numerous and frequent back-ups. These can be made onto memory sticks, so you can take them away with you, or onto your institution’s own file server. It is up to you how often and how many back-up copies you make – you know the reliability of the system you are using. However, to make no back-ups at all is ill advised. Certainly, towards the end of your project, daily back-ups will be essential. Losing an entire week’s work at the start of your project is not too serious, but at the end it would be disastrous. Take the following example as a cautionary tale: Example Jane was a final year undergraduate student on a computer studies course and kept her work backed up on memory sticks that she carried around with her. She was reasonably well organised and as such made three back-up copies of her work every day. One day, when she was working on her dissertation, she found that she couldn’t read any data on her hard drive – her PC had crashed. Fortunately, she had her back-up memory sticks with her and loaded one of these into her machine. The PC claimed the memory stick was unreadable and she tried one of the others. Again, the PC claimed that the stick was unreadable. At this point Jane realised something was terribly wrong with the machine she was using. Moving onto another machine and using her third back-up memory stick, she was able to save her work. What had happened was that Jane’s PC had become infected with a virus and was eras- ing any memory sticks that were connected to it. Had Jane only made two back-ups of her work she would have lost everything. Fortunately, with three back-ups, all was not lost and she was able to complete her project on time on another machine. 7.2 Dealing with problems 1557.2.5 Data availability
Data availability is often a problem with student projects. Either a journal or a book you require is unavailable, you can’t get hold of some data, you lose your contact in a local company where you hoped to perform a case study or you receive a poor response from some questionnaires you issued. Whatever the problem, your project looks as though it will suffer from a lack of available data. In a similar vein to weakening discussed earlier, problems with data availability can often be traced back to your project’s early stages. If you had thought about your project more thoroughly during its inauguration, you might have identified that a bookjournal was difficult to obtain, questionnaires were likely to prove unreliable and so on. Bearing these things in mind you might well set up contingency plans at an early stage – for example, changing your project’s direction so that it doesn’t rely entirely on a particular set of data. If, however, data availability problems only become apparent well into your project they must be dealt with there and then. Simply put, either the data are available or they are not. Begin first, with the help of your supervisor, considering whether you can obtain the information you require from another source – is there another company you could use as a case study, for example? Have you time to chase up the question- naires you sent out or send out new ones? Does your supervisor or your colleagues have alternative data you could use? However, if no other options are forthcoming, the sooner you accept this, adjust your project and proceed the better.7.2.6 Discovering your workresearch has been done before
On a taught degree you will not be expected to make a contribution to world knowledge, but this is not the case for research degrees, particularly for PhDs see Chapter 5. At research degree level, students often worry if their work is truly unique and is not merely repeating the work of others. They worry if the project they are pursuing has not been undertaken by someone else before and, as a consequence, are not making that contribution that is vital at PhD level they are perhaps in the Demoralised quadrant of Figure 2.2. The first means of avoiding this problem is to ensure that you have conducted a thor- ough literature survey in the first place. Not only should you read all the relevant journals and books associated with your topic area but you should find out about andor attend conferences in your field, too. It is at conferences that cutting-edge work may be presented first and ideas are discussed that are not yet published elsewhere. Try to get hold of conference proceedings early and use the Internet to access conference schedules and programmes. Through these sources you will keep track of who is doing what in particular areas and where the latest thinking is heading. It is also useful to build up contacts with other departments, research groups and institutions that are working in your field. Through the literature, conference announcements and your supervisor, you should be able to identify the ‘key players’ in your field. Try to make contact with them and keep track of what they are currently working on. The Internet and mail discussion groups are usually a good source of information in this area. If you are satisfied that the work you are doing is unique, there is still a worry that someone else may publish your ideasresults first. One way to overcome this is to submitParts
» Projects in Computing and Information Systems A Student's Guide 0273721313 Pearson 2009
» Introduction What are computing projects?
» Computing project types What are computing projects?
» Programming in computing projects
» Degree structures Degree requirements
» Degree requirements for projects
» Overview Your supervisor Stakeholders
» Clients and users Stakeholders
» Evaluators and testers Stakeholders
» Overview How this book is arranged
» Taught degree projects versus research degrees
» Summary Projects in Computing and Information Systems A Student's Guide 0273721313 Pearson 2009
» A definition What is research?
» Originality What is research?
» Gaincontribution What is research?
» Knowledge and understanding What is research?
» Identify the broad area of study.
» Plan how you will perform the research.
» Gather data and information.
» Analyse and interpret these data.
» Present the results and findings.
» Review the field – i.e., perform a literature survey.
» Build a theory – based on your understanding and interpretations of the field.
» Test the theory – does it work?
» Reflect and integrate – i.e., update your ideas based on your ‘tests’ and contribute
» Intellectual discovery The research process
» Research methods Research methods
» List or multiple choice. Provides the respondent with a number of options to
» Scale. Used to rate the respondent’s feelings towards something.
» Ranking. Used to order a series of options. You should not provide too many
» Complex grid or table. Used to gather similar responses on a range of questions.
» Open-ended. Used to obtain extended, qualitative answers.
» Summary Further reading Action points
» Techniques and Information Sources
» Additional considerations Choosing a project
» Follow any guidelines precisely. Most institutions require specific information; for
» Proofread thoroughly and get someone else to check it. Any errors or omissions
» Introduction to the subject area. This will provide the reader with an under-
» Current research in the field. This will emphasise that your project is not based in
» Identify a gap. You should be able to identify some aspect of the field that requires
» Identify how your work fills the gap. Having identified a gap in the field, your
» Identify risks and solutions. It is also useful in a project proposal to highlight any
» Explicit sections Preparing a project proposal
» Reviewing your proposal Preparing a project proposal
» Exercise Projects in Computing and Information Systems A Student's Guide 0273721313 Pearson 2009
» The project process Introduction
» Definition The project’s stages
» Planning The project’s stages
» Initiation The project’s stages
» Control The project’s stages
» Closure. The project’s stages
» Complete a literature search and literature review of existing stock market prediction
» Develop a suitable artificial neural network model.
» Identify and collect suitable data for analyses and evaluation.
» Evaluate the model using appropriate statistical techniques.
» Complete final report. Setting objectives
» Step 1 – Work Breakdown Project planning
» Step 2 – Time estimates Project planning
» Step 3 – Identify milestones Project planning
» Step 4 – Activity sequencing Project planning
» Step 5 – Scheduling Project planning
» Step 6 – Re-planning Project planning
» Rolling wave planning Project planning
» Risks. Include a list of critical risk factors and means of dealing with these risks
» Organisation. If you are undertaking a group project it would be worthwhile
» Alleviate critical risks Introduction
» Identify risks Risk management
» Alleviate critical risks Risk management
» Controlling risks Risk management
» Research degrees versus taught degree projects
» A starting point Introduction
» The literature survey process
» Format of information Literature searching
» Tracing the information Literature searching
» Inter-library loans Literature searching
» Some tips for performing a literature search
» Critical evaluation Writing literature reviews
» Overview The past Introduction
» Introduction The software development life cycle SDLC
» Requirements definition Requirements capture
» Requirements specification Requirements capture
» Functional specification Requirements capture
» Design The software development life cycle SDLC
» Build The software development life cycle SDLC
» Test The software development life cycle SDLC
» Implementation The software development life cycle SDLC
» The earliest ’model’: build-and-fix
» The stage-wise and classical waterfall models conventional models
» explore the requirements of the system with the user – requirements capture, andor
» explore the technical feasibility of a system – experimental prototyping.
» Which development approach should I use?
» Which programming language should I use?
» Introduction Top-down and bottom-up development
» Top-down development Top-down and bottom-up development
» Bottom-up development Top-down and bottom-up development
» Verification Verification, validation and testing
» Validation Verification, validation and testing
» Testing Verification, validation and testing
» Who is involved with testing and evaluation?
» Test plans Miscellaneous testing types
» Quality assurance and quality control
» Exercises Projects in Computing and Information Systems A Student's Guide 0273721313 Pearson 2009
» Getting started – project initiation
» Managing the five project elements
» Introduction Dealing with problems
» Weakening Dealing with problems
» Personal problems Dealing with problems
» Hardware failure Dealing with problems
» Data availability Dealing with problems
» Discovering your workresearch has been done before
» Analyse what you are currently doing.
» Change what you are doing to achieve your aims.
» eliminate activities you don’t need to do; and
» be more efficient doing the things you have to do.
» Time management tips Procrastination
» Using your supervisor effectively
» Introduction Working in teams
» Team development Working in teams
» Managing the team Working in teams
» Teamwork tips Working in teams
» Considerations Writing and structuring reports
» Approaches to writing Writing and structuring reports
» When should I start writing?
» Identify structure. This relates to the content of your report, using a report break-
» Identify presentational style. You should also try to set standards at this stage on
» Draft the introduction. The introduction gives the reader an idea of the
» Develop the main body. The main body of your report is the next part you
» Articulate conclusions and make recommendations. Quite clearly, your conclu-
» Complete the introduction. As part of the evolutionary approach to writing,
» Write the abstract. You cannot really write a clear abstract for your report until
» Add references and appendices. Although you will be collating references and
» Arrange contents list, index. Leave the completion of an index if one is required
» Proofread, check and correct. It is vitally important to proofread your report after
» Introductionliterature review – the first chapter of your report should always be
» Main body – the content of which depends on the type of project you are un-
» Conclusionsrecommendations – summarises the contribution of the work and
» Style Writing and structuring reports
» Word processing Writing and structuring reports
» Tips Writing and structuring reports
» Presenting charts and graphs
» Common mistakes Data presentation
» Miscellaneous charts Data presentation
» Other data presentation Data presentation
» Introduction Referencing material and avoiding plagiarism
» Citing references Referencing material and avoiding plagiarism
» Listing references Referencing material and avoiding plagiarism
» Commenting program code Documenting software
» Writing user guides Documenting software
» The presentation content Visual aids
» Introduction. One or two slides that introduce you and your talk.
» Main body. The slides that constitute the bulk of your presentation and cover the
» Summaryconclusion. A few slides that summarise your presentation and perhaps
» Dealing with questions Oral presentations
» Poster preparation tips Poster presentations
» Introduction Preparation Demonstrating software
» Demonstration tips Demonstrating software
» Introduction Viva voce examinations
» Introduction Examiners and the marking of your project
» General. Examiners will look at the relevance and appropriateness of the topic
» Report. Examiners will look for clarity, consistency, an appropriate use of
» Defence. Examiners will assess the types of arguments you have made to support
» Other. Examiners will review the administrative issues of your project. For example,
» What was the research question?
» Is it a ‘good’ question? This involves a comprehensive literature review to ensure
» Has the student answered the question adequately?
» Has the student made an adequate contribution to knowledge?
» The project approach from a technical perspective i.e., not a project management
» General project considerations subject independent
» Literature reviewproject foundation Assessment criteria
» Project approachmethods Assessment criteria
» Results and contributions Assessment criteria
» Introduction Taking your project further
» Seeking funding Developing commercial software packages
» Copyright and patents Taking your project further
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