Exercises Projects in Computing and Information Systems A Student's Guide 0273721313 Pearson 2009
7.1.3 Managing the five project elements
In Chapter 4 we saw that a project consists of five elements – three consumables: time, resources and money which are used to develop the project’s product; and two attributes of the project’s product; scope and quality. These five elements need to be managed and controlled as your project is progressing. Within academic projects students will often argue that time is the most important of these elements. It is an element that you will always seem to be in need of. In virtually all academic projects you are limited in the amount of time you are allocated and, consequently, it has limited flexibility that you can control. All you can really do with respect to this element is to manage the time you have more efficiently – generally speaking, you cannot increase the amount of time you have available. Money cost is another factor over which you have little control. However, in most academic projects, costs aren’t usually a concern. All the facilities you require are gener- ally available; if not, your project would probably not have been accepted in the first place. If you require additional hardware, software or literature material, you will either be provided with these or not – it is probably beyond your control to arrange their pro- curement and it something your supervisor will normally be responsible for. Quality and scope are those elements over which you have most control and appropri- ately have the greatest responsibility for. Quality refers to the quality of your project itself; how good is it? Is it at the right level postgraduate or undergraduate level? Is it of an acceptable standard for your course? Is it worth an Honours degree or just a Pass degree? Whereas quality can be measured by the depth of your project for example, how well you develop or investigate a particular aspect of study, scope is an indication of its breadth. Sometimes scope is viewed as an attribute of quality. It represents the final outcome of your project, what it actually achieves, its contribution, its magnitude and its limits. Resources are probably the most important element of all. Without resources there will be no project. In this case interest falls on the human resources that are available – i.e., you, your supervisor and possibly a project team. Making effective use of your supervisor is dis- cussed in Section 7.4. In some cases you might be working in teams where colleagues need organising, tasks need to be assigned, and people’s contributions drawn together. Working in teams is the subject of Section 7.5. For individual projects, organising yourself boils down to your ability to manage your own time. Managing time is discussed in Section 7.3. Figure 7.1 emphasises the leading role resources play with all these five elements – shown at the crown of this diagram. It is through your own organisation that the elements within your project are balanced with respect to each other and with respect to your project’s aims and objectives. The figure emphasises the fact that each of these elements is related to all the others in some way and tradeoffs can be made between them. How trade- offs are made between elements is discussed in the following section.7.1.4 Project control
The five project elements require managing and controlling through the five main pro- ject stages identified in Chapter 4: definition, planning, initiation, control and closure. Focus on these five elements changes as the project progresses through these stages. For example, during your project’s inauguration you won’t be too concerned about time and will probably concentrate more on identifying your project’s scope. During this 7.1 Introduction 151 Figure 7.1 Balancing five project elements against one another stage you will feel that there is an eternity before the final report is due to be handed in. You may have many ideas you want to pursue and you might wish to investigate and develop various aspects within the field of computing. However, two weeks before you are due to submit your dissertation, time will suddenly become a very rare commodity and a serious concern to you. As your project progresses into the initiation and control stages emphasis moves from project management activities to product-oriented activities. In other words, you will begin to focus on the actual work of your project itself and direct your efforts towards investigating, developing and producing your project’s deliverable, whatever you have identified this to be. As your project progresses through these working stages, you will still need to perform certain project management activities. For example, you should monitor and control all the project elements with respect to your project plan. You will control time by checking to see if you are completing tasks in line with the times planned on your Gantt chart. If you are, you are on schedule and should have no worries. If not, you might be falling behind schedule and you will need to do something about it. Not only should you monitor time as your project is progressing, but you should also keep an eye on your project’s scope and quality. Are you, for example, meeting the objectives of your project satisfactorily or have you had to make some compromises along the way? Project management will often involve deciding how to trade each of the five project elements off against one another as your project progresses. For example, you could reduce the scope of your project in order to improve its quality. Conversely, you may decide to expand the scope of your project for example, by increasing the functionality of a program you are developing at the expense of some quality by introducing more bugs. Time is always limited so you will often find yourself trying to trade it with other elements – for instance, saving time by reducing quality andor scope, particularly towards the end of your project. However, you must always ensure that you do notParts
» 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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