Commenting program code Documenting software
9.1 Introduction
One of the most important aspects of any project is being able to present your findings to others. There is no point in performing an excellent piece of research if the results cannot be disseminated. While dissemination usually takes place through written reports and articles see Chapter 8, quite often you will be called upon to make oral presentations of your work. This chapter will cover the skills needed to make effective oral presentations: how to best prepare, structure and deliver them. As a computing student, you might well be involved with the development of a soft- ware system. Presenting and demonstrating software falls within the theme of this chapter and is discussed in detail in Section 9.4. You may also find that, as part of your course, you will have to attend a viva voce or oral examination. How to prepare for and conduct yourself, during this kind of exami- nation is discussed in Section 9.5. •9.2 Oral presentations
9.2.1 Introduction
Oral presentations are an essential part of many degree courses these days. They are fre- quently used to assess students’ understanding of their work and their abilities to present their findings to others in oral form. For many people, their only involvement or encounter with you and your project will be at your oral presentation. They may be interested in your work from a profes- sional or personal viewpoint or they may be part of the assessment team evaluating your work. Whatever the case, the goal of your oral presentation should be to inter- est and inspire your audience, and to emphasize your own interest and enthusiasm in your project. Two types of oral presentations you might be involved with, particularly at the postgraduate level, are conference presentations and internal departmental presentations. Quite often, postgraduate students will be expected to present at internal seminars and, for PhD students, submitting and presenting a con- ference paper may be compulsory during the course of their studies. An oral presentation can be compared with an iceberg: most of it is hidden from view. Like an iceberg, your audience will only see around 10 of the work in your presentation – the delivery itself. They will not see the other 90 of effort that you put in to preparing it. In addition, of all the material you obtain and the results you acquire during the course of your project, you might only have time to present the more interesting and most important 10 of detail. A number of considerations go into the development of an oral presentation: prepa- ration, content, visual aids, the delivery of the presentation itself and dealing with questions. This chapter deals with each of these elements before offering a few final tips to help you present your project successfully. For more information on giving presentations, three books devoted entirely to this topic are: Etherington 2006, Hall 2007 and Reynolds 2008. 9.2 Oral presentations 2239.2.2 Preparation
The first stage of any oral presentation is preparation. During this stage you clarify your presentation’s objectives, taking into account the audience who will be attending and the time you have available including time for questions. If you don’t know these things, it is important to clarify them as soon as possible as they will have a significant bearing on how you create your presentation. Objectives Begin by clarifying the objectives of your presentation – what do you hope to achieve and what should your focus be? Will you be discussing the project itself rather than its outcomes for example, its problems, solutions, how you performed the project and so on? Alternatively, you may be presenting the technical outcomes of your project to a more scientific audience a conference presentation, for example. In this case, you might address such points as how the work was performed, the supporting research and its context, what you discovered and what your results were. You should also consider the assessment criteria being applied to your presentation this is not relevant for con- ference presentations but is important if the presentation forms part of your project’s assessment. In this case, are the examiners interested in the presentation itself rather than the content? Are they interested in how you form your arguments or state your case? This will clearly influence the way in which you put your talk together. Cryer 2006: 178 identifies some additional possibilities that might represent the main purpose of your presentation: n to explain what you have achieved and, if applicable, what you intend to do next; n to obtain advice and feedback; n a forum for learning and mutual support; or n as part of your assessment or as a monitoring process. Time You will probably find that your presentation needs to last anywhere from ten minutes to one hour. Quite clearly, with only ten minutes for a presentation, you will have to get straight to the point; with an hour to play with, you will be able to cover more back- ground and build up to the main point of your talk. It’s important to first clarify how much time is available for your presentation and for questions. Will you be able to decide on the proportion of time allocated for the presentation and the questions or is this specified? How flexible is this time – is it fixed to within one or two minutes or can you over- or under-run to a much greater extent? Audience The number and type of people who will be attending your presentation will have a significant bearing on its style and content. Ask yourself these questions: Will your audience be assessing you? Are they your peers? Are you hoping to inspire them withParts
» 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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