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+ | ====== CM3203 Initial Plan ====== | ||
+ | The project is a substantial part of your degree. It can significantly affect the degree classification and whether or not you pass the degree. The initial plan is to ensure you **understand what your project requires you to do** and **how you will complete it successfully**. You must submit an initial plan at the beginning of your project, usually at the start of spring week 2 (the exact deadline is listed in PATS). | ||
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+ | We suggest you **write an initial version** of your plan (based on what you know about the project from the selection phase), **arrange a meeting** with your supervisor to discuss it, and then **revise** it before the deadline. There is **little time** to complete the plan, so **contact your supervisor** for a spring week 1 meeting early on (in the week before spring week 1, latest Monday, spring week 1). | ||
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+ | Note that this is an initial plan. You **can, and most likely should, adjust the plan** as you progress. However, with the initial plan, you are prescribing what you intend to deliver for your project. **Any more significant changes, particularly affecting the aims and objectives, should be discussed and agreed upon with your supervisor**. | ||
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+ | ===== Contents and Structure ===== | ||
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+ | The structure laid out for the initial plan below must be followed precisely. You should have **all the sections** listed; more information is not required. You must follow the **[[Typesetting Rules]]** for writing the plan. | ||
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+ | The main body of your initial plan (all sections listed below) should be at most **2,000 words**, excluding any figures, tables and references. This limit is a maximum, not a target. Enough information such that a competent computer scientist can understand your plan should be given. You may want to cite references if specific background knowledge is necessary. | ||
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+ | ==== Project Title ==== | ||
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+ | The plan's title should be **" | ||
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+ | The project title is your current **working title** and should accurately represent the project you intend to undertake. You can change it for the final report. | ||
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+ | Also, **adjust the title in the PATS project information** accordingly (without " | ||
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+ | ==== Project Description ==== | ||
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+ | The document' | ||
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+ | Here, in particular, you may **cite background material** relating to the origins of the problem, potential approaches, etc., as appropriate (no need for a complete background section, but only to help the reader understand the problem, context and your ideas to approach it). See **[[References]]** for how to cite these with a references section at the end of the plan (see below). | ||
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+ | You may also want to include a **short justification of why the problem is a sufficient challenge for the project module**. Also, ensure the description is about a **specific problem** you can address within the constraints of the project and not only a general idea. | ||
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+ | **Half a page to one page** should be sufficient for this. | ||
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+ | ==== Aims and Objectives ==== | ||
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+ | The document' | ||
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+ | Try to be **realistic** with your objectives of what you expect to be able to achieve within the constraints of the project. That does not mean your objectives cannot be **ambitious**, | ||
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+ | For each objective, briefly **consider any likely or highly likely risks** that may be involved in achieving them and briefly outline mitigations (changes to the objectives). If you foresee no such risks, say so, but include a brief justification. There is no need to consider unlikely risks. Any risks covered by the university' | ||
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+ | Note, the objectives should be **about the problem**. That means including objectives on acquiring any necessary skills is not suitable (but they may form part of the risks). | ||
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+ | **Half a page** should be sufficient for this. | ||
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+ | ==== Feasibility ==== | ||
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+ | In the document' | ||
+ | * **ethical approval**; | ||
+ | * **legal issues** such as intellectual property and licensing; | ||
+ | * any **special resources** needed, e.g. non-standard hardware or special software. | ||
+ | **List any issues** that may affect your project and its feasibility and **how they will be handled**. If a likely or highly likely risk is involved (e.g. ethical approval delayed or denied; resources not available), include a **discussion of risk mitigation**. If you foresee no such issues, state so briefly (with a justification if your project description may suggest otherwise). | ||
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+ | Include any necessary steps to address these issues in your **work plan**. | ||
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+ | **Note that the student and supervisor are responsible for ensuring the project is feasible to execute in principle**. | ||
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+ | **Half a page** should be sufficient for this and often it may be much less. In exceptional situations/ | ||
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+ | ==== Work Plan ==== | ||
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+ | The document' | ||
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+ | Ensure your tasks, milestones, and deliverables are **clear and project specific**. Generic items such as producing a final report (what specifically do you produce for it?), reading background (what topics?), working on the solution (what tasks? components/ | ||
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+ | Your work plan should **cover the period from spring week 1 to 12** (including the initial plan preparation). Consider the spring break during the term and any other commitments, | ||
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+ | Generally, your work is likely, to begin with **investigating the context and background** of your problem (consider topics for your specific items). You may want to reserve some time for this at the start, but do not spend more than a week or two on it; some topics may have to be considered later. The background is ongoing work as you progress and understand more about the problem. | ||
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+ | This is followed by quite some time to **work on addressing the problem**. This, particularly, | ||
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+ | Then reserve some time for **evaluating** your results. This is often based on results you obtained during working on the problem. So it may be quite a brief period, say 1 week, but you must have some time to draw all the results together. It is also important here to consider any time required to compute expensive results (e.g. training machine learning models), build any hardware (e.g. 3D printing), user tests (e.g. getting user survey data), etc. These may have to be completed before you can evaluate your approach, but they can take some time, while you may not have much to do. Are there other tasks (on the project or other modules) you can complete while waiting for these results? | ||
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+ | Then give yourself at least two weeks at the end of the project to **complete writing** the report. You should be documenting what you are doing throughout the project, but this is the time to draw this together into one coherent document. Do not plan to write the report last minute, and consider giving yourself some extra time for tasks that took longer than expected. Or you may have some extra time to complete additional work. | ||
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+ | You are free to choose the **work plan format** that you think is best suited for your project and working style. This //may// be a [[wp> | ||
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+ | You should typically **see your supervisor** once a week for a shorter time or once every two weeks for a longer time. The expectation is a **30-minute meeting per week on average over 12 weeks**, but the time can be distributed differently over the period. The details of these arrangements are for you to agree with your supervisor. We recommend including the schedule in your time plan, especially if your supervisor is not always available during the term. (You are responsible to organise meetings with your supervisor, but if you cannot get hold of them within the agreed schedule, contact the project coordinator; | ||
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+ | **One page** should be sufficient for this. | ||
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+ | ==== References ==== | ||
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+ | If you cite any work, include a **reference section** at the end of the document. We recommend having a few references, but it is not strictly necessary. References do not count towards the word limit. See **[[References]]** for the format. | ||
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+ | ===== Submission ===== | ||
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+ | You must submit your plan by the deadline on PATS in the initial plan tab for your project. This only needs to be a single PDF file containing the sections described above. Additional material can be provided, but it is unlikely to be relevant to the marks unless some exceptional circumstances emerge from the discussions with your supervisor or project coordinator (e.g. in case of complex feasibility issues). | ||
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+ | Please see the **[[Submission Guide]]** for information about submitting a report via PATS. Also, ensure the **project title in the project description** on PATS matches the project title in the initial plan (the description does not yet have to be adjusted, even if you are allowed to update it according to your plan). | ||
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+ | ===== Assessment ===== | ||
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+ | Before you submit the final version, you should **discuss the plan with your supervisor** to make sure both of you agree on what your project entails and receive some **feed-forward** towards the initial plan assessment. If the supervisor is unavailable for some reason in spring week 1 for this meeting, please briefly state this in the plan. In this case, the markers should consider that you may not have received any additional information on the project proposal. But you should already have a good idea of the project when you have selected the project (from the proposal and the supervisor meeting then). | ||
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+ | The initial plan is worth **5%** of the module' | ||
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+ | The supervisor and moderator do not discuss their assessment (due to its low contribution to the final mark), so you get their individual opinions and marks on your project. The total mark of the plan is the average of their individual marks. Consider both of their feedback as they may come from different backgrounds, | ||
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+ | ==== Assessment Criteria ===== | ||
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+ | Your supervisor and moderator will mark your plan according to the following criteria: | ||
+ | * Title and project description accurately represent the project and are suitable for the module you are taking; | ||
+ | * Aims and objectives are sufficiently detailed and provide a suitable challenge for the project; | ||
+ | * Feasibility of the project with appropriate risk management has been suitably considered; | ||
+ | * Work plan is feasible, sufficiently specific to the project, and has clear deliverables, | ||
+ | on the following scale: | ||
+ | * 0 marks: No suitable plan has been submitted. | ||
+ | * 1 mark: Only a partial plan with significant deficiencies/ | ||
+ | * 2 marks: A plan with a project title and description, | ||
+ | * 3 marks: ...which is feasible to execute within the constraints of the project... | ||
+ | * 4 marks: ...and has sufficient project-specific details and clear milestones... | ||
+ | * 5 marks: ...and shows originality, | ||
+ | You will receive their individual feedback and mark via PATS and the total mark of the project is the average of their individual marks. |