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Interim Report

If you are doing the CM0343 40-credit project module you will need to submit and interim report worth 25% of the total project mark, which should cover the results of the first stage of the project. This report should consist of 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. The precise nature of this report depends on the project and the agreed deliverables for the interim report in the project plan to indicate the progress made on the project to account for 25% of the project. For example, it may for some projects also contain an initial version of a final deliverable or some other building block of the overall project. The interim report forms part I of the project and has to be submitted by the student towards the end of the first semester. See your project details in PATS for the submission deadline.

Please see your initial plan in which you should have clearly outlined the deliverables for the interim report. Your supervisor and/or moderator may have left additional comments on your plan on PATS to tell you whether these deliverables are suitable and what they expect for the interim report. Check the comments on PATS for your report. Also discuss carefully with your supervisor what you should be including in the interim report.

For information about how to submit your interim report via PATS please see the Submission Guide. Note that in order to get an extension to the submission deadline the general coursework submission extension guidelines apply. So please follow this in case you have a valid reason to ask for an extension.

Structure and Contents

The interim report should be about 5000 words long. Geberal guidance on project report structures is available in Arranging Material and Structuring the Project Report. In general the interim report should have the following structure:

Title PageSupport
Abstract

FIXME

You should adjust the structure of the interim report to your specific project and choose suitable sections to represent this. Please discuss the structure and contents of your interim report with your supervisor. The three main sections / topics you should be covering are:

Introduction

The introduction you should describe the problem you are working on, its context and which specific part of the problem and what solution you are intending to work towards.

Background

The background section should cover the information that a typical reader cannot be expected to know, but which they will need to know in order to fully understand the report. This covers information about related work that you may either use in your project or that attempts to solve a similar problem.

Approach

The approach section is very project specific and should cover details about how you intend to solve the problem. It should cover the deliverables your prescribed in the initial plan for your interim report. This could be the requirements and specification with a design of the whole or part of the problem. It may also cover a complete component of the project, e.g. a complete program or library, etc. that you implemented for the project.

Interim Report Assessment

After the submission deadline your supervisor and moderator assess the interim report independently of each other. They will submit the marks and their comments on your report on PATS where you will be able to view these. You will be informed by e-mail when these results are available (after the January exams). You will have the opportunity to discuss the results and the feedback on the interim report with your supervisor at your regular meeting with your supervisor.

The criteria for assessing the interim report are listed below. Please read these carefully as it will help you to see what your assessors will be looking for in your report. Also take into account what you promised to produce for the interim report in your initial plan, and your supervisor's and moderator's comments on this on PATS. How far you produces these deliverables is part of the interim report assessment.

You can resubmit your interim report at any time until the deadline and your supervisor and moderator will be mark this or make any comments online before the deadline. Please discuss your interim 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 and moderator can see these there (you can, but do not have to submit them until you have the final version).

Assessment Criteria

Your supervisor and moderator will assess your interim report according to the following criteria:

  • Understanding of the problem and the aims and objectives of the project
  • Achievement of agreed deliverables given in initial plan for the interim report
    • The amount of work reported in the interim report should be about 25% of the total work required for the module (in total 40 credits/320 hours of work for CM0343)
  • Awareness of background to the problem (as relevant to the interim report)
  • Detailed analysis of the problem, requirement specification and definition (as relevant to the interim report)
  • Suitability of approach towards solving the problem (as relevant to the interim report)
  • Written communication skills
  • Interaction and work with supervisor
interim_report.1321035949.txt.gz ยท Last modified: 2011/11/11 18:25 by scmfcl