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-====== Initial Project Plan ====== 
- 
-The final year project is a substantial part of your degree. It can have a  
-major effect on the degree class you are awarded and even whether or not 
-you pass the degree. The initial project plan is to make sure you understand 
-what your project requires you to do and how you are going to finish it successfully. 
-You must submit an initial project plan at the beginning of the first semester of 
-your project (the deadline for this is listed in your PATS account under the project 
-description). 
- 
-The initial project plan must be approved by your supervisor and moderator. Therefore, 
-you should discuss the plan with your supervisor and moderator before you submit it to 
-make sure both of you agree on what your project entails. You should further check the 
-project plan with your moderator, but the first person to talk about it is usually your 
-supervisor. 
- 
-We suggest that you write an initial version of your project plan and arrange meetings 
-with your supervisor and moderator to discuss it and revise the plan. If you are not sure 
-what to write in the plan, please first discuss this with your supervisor. Once your 
-supervisor and moderator are happy with your plan, submit it to PATS and they can 
-officially approve it there. As you can resubmit the plan via PATS multiple times, you can 
-also submit a draft and your supervisor and moderator can look at it there and even leave 
-comments. However, unless there are exceptional circumstances (e..g supervisor or moderator 
-may be away), we highly recommend to discuss the plan in person and not just in PATS or by 
-e-mail. 
- 
-Finally, note that this is an initial plan, and you can, and most likely should, adjust the 
-plan as you progress. Note, however, that with the initial plan you are prescribing what you 
-intend to deliver at the various stages of the project (in particular for the final and, if 
-applicable, interim report). 
- 
-For information about how to submit your initial plan via pats please see the [[Submission Guide]]. 
- 
-===== Structure and Contents ===== 
- 
-For the initial plan one to at most two pages text are sufficient. It should contain 
-the following information: 
- 
-==== Project Title ==== 
- 
-The title of the initial plan document should be "Initial Plan" followed by the 
-title of your project. List yourself as author and also say who your supervisor 
-and moderator is. 
- 
-==== Project Description ==== 
- 
-The first section of the document should be a brief description of your project 
-outlining its context and what it is overall about. You can adapt the original 
-project description used to select your project there. There is no need to describe 
-a lot of detail there and this would usually not be longer than half a page. 
- 
-==== Project Aims and Objectives ==== 
- 
-The second section of the document should be a list of top-level aims and objectives 
-for your project. These are statements of what you set out to achieve with your project. 
-Try to be as specific as possible here at this stage, but avoid getting into too many 
-details that may change later. A list of some top-level bullet points with at most one 
-level of sub-points is usually sufficient. 
- 
-=== For Projects with Final Report Only === 
- 
-If you are taking module CM0300, CM0333 or CM0400 your aims and objectives are what  
-you expect to have at the end of the module for your final report. 
- 
-=== For Projects with Interim and Final Report === 
- 
-If you are taking module CM0343 you should also clearly indicate what you expect to include 
-in the interim report and the final report. Note that the contents of the interim report 
-should not be repeated in the final report. You may think of the interim report as volume I 
-and the final report as volume II of your overall project report. Your final deliverables 
-(e.g. any final versions of software you developed) form part III of the project. 
- 
-What to include in the two reports depends on the nature of your project. Your interim report 
-should provide the results of the first stage of the project, representing about 25% of 
-the total project work. This would usually be the results of the background study and a 
-detailed analysis of the problem with a description of an approach of how to address the 
-problem. For some projects, e.g., it may also contain an initial version of a final 
-deliverable or some other building block of the overall project. 
- 
-The final report then contains the overall project findings and achievements and the 
-complete set of deliverables developed for the project to account for 75% of the complete 
-project. The report should not repeat the contents of the interim report, but may refer to 
-it and expand on it. 
- 
-Your project plan effectively defines what should go into which report. Hence, you should 
-carefully discuss this with your supervisor to make sure there is enough for 25% in the 
-interim report and you neither try to do too much or too little for the interim report. 
- 
-==== Work Plan ==== 
- 
-The last section of your plan should consist of a time plan stating what you are working 
-on when. This should include clear milestones of what you expect to achieve by which date 
-and also show how you intent to achieve these milestones. Make sure the deliverables for 
-the final (and interim) report clearly link with your time plan, such that you can actually 
-deliver them when they are due. 
- 
-You are free to choose the work plan format that you think is best suited for your project. 
-This //may// be in a GANTT chart format, but sometimes it may also be fine to simply list 
-in sequence what you are working on. Usually a weekly scale for the plan is a good choice. 
-Take note of the deadlines for the deliverables as listed in your PATS project description 
-when you develop the work plan. 
- 
-===== Approval Procedure ===== 
- 
-Once you have discussed your project plan with your supervisor and moderator and have 
-submitted it on PATS, both, your supervisor and moderator, must approve your plan on PATS 
-as well. They can also choose to leave any comments with your plan. You will see the comments 
-and the approval as soon as they have done this. 
- 
-You can resubmit your plan at any time until the deadline listed. Should you resubmit a plan 
-that has already been approved, the approval will be removed and the new plan must be  
-approved again. 
- 
-After the submission deadline your supervisor and moderator can still approve the plan, 
-edit their comments, etc. and in very special cases even remove approval (they should 
-get in contact with you to discuss if they choose to do this). They can do this until about 
-one week after the plan submission deadline. After this approval deadline they cannot 
-undo any approval (but still approve your plan in case there is any delay, just that 
-approval will then be final). 
- 
-In case you fail to submit your plan by deadline or wish to resubmit a plan after the 
-submission deadline, please get in contact with the project coordinator to discuss this. 
  
initial_plan.1317565045.txt.gz · Last modified: 2011/10/02 15:17 by scmfcl