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- | ====== Individual Report | + | ====== Individual Report |
- | You must submit an individual report worth 75% of the total project | + | You must each submit an individual report |
- | + | ||
- | Please see your initial team report | + | |
===== Structure and Contents ===== | ===== Structure and Contents ===== | ||
- | The final report | + | We would expect the main body of the final report |
- | | |Title Page | + | * an introduction to the project including a summary of your agreed individual responsibilities; |
- | | |Abstract | + | detailed design and any further analysis of the problem specifically relating to your part of the project; |
- | | |Acknowledgements | + | * a discussion of the development of your part of the project covering implementation and how this integrates with the rest of the team; |
- | | |Table of Contents | + | * discussion of the testing used at a team and individual level, e.g. validation, unit testing, integration and systems testing; |
- | | |Table | + | * an evaluation of the product and process at a team and individual level; |
- | |1.|Introduction | + | an analysis of the team dynamics and a reflection on what you have personally learnt from carrying out the project; |
- | |2.|Background | + | * conclusions and future work. |
- | |3.|Approach | + | |
- | |4.|Implementation | + | A possible structure for your final report is: |
- | |5.|Results | + | |
- | |6.|Future Work |::: | | + | * Title Page |
- | |7.|Conclusions | + | |
- | |8.|Reflection on Learning|::: | + | |
- | | |Glossary | + | |
- | | |Table | + | |
- | | |Appendices | + | - Detailed analysis and design |
- | | |References | + | - Implementation |
- | If you are implementing | + | - Testing |
+ | - Evaluation | ||
+ | - Reflection | ||
+ | - Future Work and Conclusions | ||
+ | * References | ||
+ | * Appendices | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Main Body of the Report ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Each of the sections of the main body of the individual report are discussed in more detail below. You can use this characteristic structure as a rough template for organising the material. However, often it may be of advantage to adjust the suggested structure to your particular project instead of sticking to the template. Consult your supervisor for advice. It is also a good idea to plan roughly how long each part should be before writing the report, to make sure that the length and overall balance are about right. You can then construct each part to produce a first draft of the main body. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The " | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Introduction should relate the student’s individual contribution to the team report and discuss any changes, extensions or new insights. It should outline the suitability, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The " | ||
+ | |||
+ | The purpose of this section is to provide information on the detailed analysis and design of YOUR PART OF THE SYSTEM that has been done since the team report. This section may describe such things as: | ||
+ | * the problems and challenges | ||
+ | * research and/or further analysis to fully understand the problem area | ||
+ | * any constraints on the approach to be adopted, | ||
+ | * existing solutions relevant to the problem area, and why these are unsuitable or insufficient in this particular case, | ||
+ | * any further methods and tools (not discussed in the team report) that your part of the solution may be based on or use to solve the problem, | ||
+ | * consideration of legal/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Long descriptions of details are to be avoided and references to suitable sources of detailed information should be given instead. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Possible viewpoints of the design might discuss: | ||
+ | * the business model the software supports, | ||
+ | * the user interface, | ||
+ | * the dynamic behaviour of the system, | ||
+ | * what data types are implemented in the system, | ||
+ | * what algorithms are implemented in the system, | ||
+ | * the static architecture of the system, i.e. how the code is partitioned into modules, etc. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fine details, specifically details of code, should be left out. We strongly recommend that you make extensive use of diagrams, such as entity-relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, state charts, or other pictorial techniques. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As well as describing the system, it is important that you justify its design, for example, by discussing the implications of constraints on your solution and different design choices, and then giving reasons for making the choices you did. Typically these implications will relate to the aims of the project; to the relevant functional and non-functional requirements specified in the Team Report and to any innovative aspects of your design. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The design of the system will almost certainly have evolved while you were developing it. Obviously you should describe its final state but often there are good reasons for describing intermediate states, too; for example, if you want to discuss the details of the design method used or to highlight learning that you later refer to in the Reflection section. If you do this, take special care to make sure the reader does not get confused between different stages of the design. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The "Implementation" ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Implementation section is similar to the previous section in that it describes the system, but it does so at a finer level of detail, down to the code level. It can also describe any problems that may have arisen during implementation | ||
+ | |||
+ | Do not attempt to describe all of your code in the system, and do not include large pieces of code in this section. A complete listing of your source code should be provided separately in the appendices. Instead pick out and describe just the pieces of code which, for example: | ||
+ | * are especially critical to the operation of the system; | ||
+ | * you feel might be of particular interest to the reader for some reason; | ||
+ | * illustrate a non-standard or innovative way of implementing functionality | ||
+ | |||
+ | You should also mention any unforeseen problems you encountered when implementing and integrating your part of the system with the work of the rest of the team and how and to what extent you overcame them. Common problems are: | ||
+ | * difficulties involving existing software, because of, e.g., | ||
+ | | ||
+ | * lack of documentation; | ||
+ | | ||
+ | | ||
+ | | ||
+ | |||
+ | A seemingly disproportionate amount of project time can be taken up in dealing with such problems. The Implementation section gives you the opportunity to show where that time has gone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The " | ||
+ | |||
+ | In this section you should describe your testing strategy and to what extent your part of the system achieved your goals. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This should include | ||
+ | |||
+ | You should also describe how you demonstrated that your part of system met or exceeded the functional and non-functional requirements of all relevant stakeholders. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Include comprehensible summaries of the results of all critical tests that were carried out. Detailed documentation of tests can be included in the appendices. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The " | ||
+ | |||
+ | This section | ||
+ | * a critical evaluation of the whole product including coverage of the strengths and limitations of the solution system | ||
+ | * a critical evaluation of the whole process in the form of a discussion that includes the effectiveness of the tools/ | ||
+ | * an analysis of the dynamics of the team in carrying out the whole project. This should | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The " | ||
+ | |||
+ | One of the principles applied throughout the assessment during your studies is that of the value of reflection. We believe that it is important that we reflect upon our performance in order to identify “transferable learning”, that can be carried over into future activities. For example, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The " | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is quite likely that by the end of your project you will not have achieved all that you planned at the start; and in any case, your ideas will have grown during the course of the project beyond what you could hope to do within the available time. The Future Work section | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Conclusions section should | ||
+ | The Conclusions section marks the end of the project report proper. Be honest and objective in your conclusions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== Supporting Material ====== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Abstract ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is a summary of the report. It must be less than 300 words long. It should give enough information to allow a potential reader to decide whether or not the report will be of interest to them. It should briefly describe the main ideas of the report, including the aims and conclusions. It should be both self-contained and self-explanatory, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Acknowledgements ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | This optional section should be used to record indebtedness for the use of facilities or help from particular sources. You should mention any organisations or people who have helped | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Figures ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | A project report that uses figures (i.e. diagrams or other pictorial techniques such as tables) | ||
+ | |||
+ | When drawing diagrams try to keep to a standard graphical notation that has been introduced during your studies, or that you have seen published widely, and use it consistently. | ||
+ | |||
+ | All figures should | ||
+ | |||
+ | '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The label can then be used to refer to the diagram within the text, e.g. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | All diagrams must be explicitly referred to somewhere within the text. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== References ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | We said that you should relate your work to that of other people. Other work explicitly cited should be listed in the Reference section should be referenced using the Harvard Style. It is important that you give proper credit to all work that is not strictly your own, and that you do not violate copyright restrictions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Guidance on the Harvard Style of citing | ||
+ | |||
+ | Guidance on plagiarism and how to avoid it is available at [[http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Note that it is seldom sufficient to simply | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Appendices ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Appendices are where you present material which you want to include in the report, but which would seriously obstruct the flow of ideas if put anywhere in the main body. This should include a complete set of the deliverables that you developed for your part of the project including any models, test cases and source code | ||
- | If you are implementing a piece of software or you intend to design and analyse algorithms the " | + | Appendices should be headed by letters in alphabetical order, i.e. Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. |
- | Then present the results of your work and evaluate these results with suitable evidence, discussing the advantages and weaknesses of your approach. You may also consider a section describing the design and results of experiments here, in particular if your project involves evaluating algorithms or similar. The " | + | ====== General Advice ====== |
- | Do not take any of these section headings as fixed, but instead consider them as a guide. You should adjust the structure of the final report to your specific project | + | ===== Sections |
- | ===== Individual Report Assessment ===== | + | The main body of the project report should be divided up into sections, along the lines suggested in Structure and Contents or otherwise, as appropriate. Each section should, if necessary, be divided up into subsections, |
- | After the submission deadline your supervisor | + | It is important that you start each section |
+ | Each major section should begin on a new page. All sections and subsections should be numbered and headed. Numbering should be like this: 3.10.7 – for subsubsection 7 in subsection 10, in section 3. | ||
- | A mark out of 75 is given on the final report, representing 75% of the total mark. The marks awarded for the team report and presentation will be added to the marks given for the individual report to give a total mark from each assessor. If their total marks differ by less than 10, the final mark for the project will be the average between the supervisor' | + | ===== Stylistic Conventions ===== |
- | The criteria for assessing the individual report | + | There are all kinds of stylistic conventions relating to technical writing that you should try to follow. For example: |
+ | * do not use shortened forms such as “don' | ||
+ | * avoid colloquialisms and slang words; | ||
+ | * use British English and write in complete sentences; | ||
+ | * divide | ||
- | You can resubmit your individual report at any time until the deadline and your supervisor and moderator will not be able to mark this or make any comments online before the deadline. Please discuss your individual report with your supervisor at your regular meetings. You can upload parts of the report onto PATS so that your supervisor can look at these (or give the report in any other way to your supervisor). Just upload the files in the file upload section and your supervisor can see these there (you can, but do not have to submit them until you have the final version). | + | Writing where the language style or typography, e.g. font or character size, change arbitrarily looks amateurish and can be very distracting for the reader. Use typography to support |
+ | * bullet points, | ||
+ | * use of hyphens, | ||
+ | * use of capitalisation, | ||
+ | * technical terms, | ||
+ | * abbreviations, | ||
+ | * use of symbols. | ||
- | ===== Assessment Criteria ===== | + | To some extent you can use your own judgement about what conventions to follow. Whatever you do though, you must be consistent. |
- | Your supervisor and moderator will assess your final report | + | Individual |
- | * Problem and background | + | |
- | * Understanding of the problem and the aims and objectives of the project | + | |
- | * Awareness of background to the problem | + | |
- | * Detailed analysis of the problem, suitability of approach towards solving the problem | + | |
- | * Solution to the problem | + | |
- | * Approach and design, integration with the software developed by the team | + | |
- | * Solution, implementation | + | |
- | * Use of and justification for appropriate tools/ | + | |
- | * Evaluation | + | |
- | * Testing and validation | + | |
- | * Critical appraisal of results, including discussion of how the results link with the other parts of the team project | + | |
- | * Achievement of agreed overall deliverables given in initial plan for the final report (or a justified modification of these) | + | |
- | * Communication and project management skills | + | |
- | * Written (individual report) and oral (viva) communication skills | + | |
- | * Project planning, control and reflection | + | |
- | * Interaction and work with supervisor and the project team | + | |
- | * Review meetings, as specified in the initial plan | + | |
- | The scale for this assessment is: | + | |
- | * Third class (>= 40%): The student has clearly defined the problem and made progress towards a solution... | + | |
- | * 2.2 (>= 50%): ...and demonstrated a disciplined approach and adequate solution... | + | |
- | * 2.1 (>= 60%): ...and an appreciation of best practice with a full justification for the solution... | + | |
- | * First class (>=70%): ...and evidence of originality and professionalism and/or scholarship. | + |