Third Final Year Project

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Third (Final) Year Project

• IT6101

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Why this is important?

• It is compulsory
• You need to score 50 or more
• It involves a number of areas
• Systems analysis
• Programming
• Software engineering
• Project management
• Presentation / defense etc..

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Is that all?

• Cannot pass the module by last minute work.
• There is a written paper
• You have to prepare a dissertation
• Develop software
• Finally, a demonstration and a defense

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What are the objectives of this module?

• There are eight objectives listed in Project
  Guide lines and lets go through one-by-one
• Construct a project from initial ideas, via a
  thorough analysis of the problem
• Plan, schedule, monitor and control own work
• Work independently
• Defend ideas in discussions and presentations
• Use references- libraries and other information
  sources.
• Apply theories, tools and techniques from taught
  courses
• Present the findings
• Formal report writing

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You mentioned about a Project guide lines what
is that?

• We provide a copy of the Project guidelines to
  each student as they register for the third
  year. It is a booklet with about 20 pages.
  Further, we publish amendments and supplements to
  that booklet on our website.

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Lets get back to objectives

• Construct a project from initial ideas, via a
  thorough analysis of the problem
• Plan, schedule, monitor and control own work
• Work independently
• Defend ideas in discussions and presentations
• Use references- libraries and other information
  sources.
• Apply theories, tools and techniques from taught
  courses
• Present the findings
• Formal report writing

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Construct a project from initial ideas, via a
  thorough analysis of the problem
• Identifying a suitable and useful problem and
  refining it
• Here you need to recall what you learnt in your
  first year under Systems analysis and design
  module.

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Plan, schedule, monitor and control own work
• This is very important as failure to achieve this
  can result a total failure in this module
• Skills in software project management, software
  engineering, communication skills, and most
  importantly
• You need to be ambitious, and enthusiastic

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Work independently
• You need to demonstrate some originality
• Even if you find someone else doing a similar
  project dont try to copy his/her work. This is a
  warning you need to treat seriously! Otherwise
  you may face serious problems at the viva

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Work independently
• You may discuss your problems with others but
  none of them may be able to solve your exact
  problem.
• But experience of others may help you.
• Even your supervisor may not be able to solve all
  your problems
• Therefore the project is a challenge!

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Work independently
• When no one else is doing the same, you need to
  manage your work by yourself.
• You will be the worker as well as the quality
  controller as well

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Defend ideas in discussions and presentations
• Your work will be evaluated by the PEB
• But you are given a chance to defend your ideas
  at a viva.
• You need to get the maximum opportunity to
  convince the PEB of your work at the viva.
• It will be the one and only chance of face to
  face meeting with an examiner

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Use references- libraries and other information
  sources.
• As I pointed out earlier, no one else would be
  doing an identical project. That means you need
  to solve problems by yourself.
• How? Referencing material from libraries and
  other information services

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Use references- libraries and other information
  sources.
• That involves, presenting your findings properly/
  methodically in the dissertation
• Extracting the correct information you were
  looking for.
• Filtering out unwanted information
• Summarizing and synthesizing your findings

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Apply theories, tools and techniques from taught
  courses
• Adopt/ apply what you have already learnt.
• Some of them may be straight forward, but most of
  them need some thinking and planning
• Especially if yours is a research type project

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Present the findings
• Both in the dissertation as well as at the viva
• Present methodically and logically
• Filtering out extra details but not loosing the
  spirit
• Maintaining completeness of your presentation
• Maintaining the comprehensibility

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What are the objectives of this module?

• Formal report writing
• You need to follow the guidelines given in your
  booklet strictly

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• Project deliverables?
• Project title?
• Selecting a supervisor?
• Role of Supervisor and Academic Coordinator?
• Testing?
• Project Type?
• Project Schedule?

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• Project Proposal?
• Requirement Definition?
• Log Book?
• Dissertation?
• Documentation?
• Examination?
• Viva?

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• Project deliverables?
• Remember what we expect is not the dissertation,
  logbook, PDF, Requirements definition etc.
• But what your final products (S/W) would be?,
  results of your surveys, test results,
  certifications, acceptance etc.

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• Make sure that the title of your project is not
  too open and common
• Eg. A Library management system
• Your project should justify about 300 hours of
  work. Therefore a simple title may fail to
  justify that
• A system to process exam marks of A/L students at
  ABC College

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• Make sure that the title is adequately
  comprehensive
• Eg. MIS for performance review
• Which is unclear
• But
• Plantations management information system
• May be acceptable

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• When selecting a supervisor, make sure that your
  supervisor has adequate free time to spend on
  your project.
• Somehow one of your supervisors is IT literate.

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Supervision

• The role of your supervisor and what to expect
  from him/her ?
• Guidance , ability to clarify /explain the
  documents provided by us.
• Get in touch with the Academic cordinator only if
  he/she has doubts
• Monitor your progress

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Role of the academic coordinator

• NOT to supervise you

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Supervisor

• If supervising more than 10 students ?
• Not enough time to attend to your problems
• May not be able to help you properly
• May not be able to concentrate on your project
  adequately

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• You need to clearly identify your testing
  environment
• How to generate your test data ? Refer your
  software engineering module.

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• You will be asked to demonstrate your software
  system at the viva. Therefore make sure that you
  know how to configure your environment properly.
• Eg. .Net

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Lets pinpoint some important points..

• There are two major classes of projects
• Research type
• Implementation type

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Research type projects

• Must have an academic value.
• Involve significant amount of literature survey
  and synthesis of information
• Comparison of your results with previously
  published results to justify the acceptance
• The research component of your work must be
  adequate to convince the PEB

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Research type projects

• May involve a research hypothesis
• Testing of hypothesis
• Critical evaluation of your empirical results
• Need to logically justify your approach
• Your topic must be useful to other people as well.

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Research type projects

• Justification of the need of a solution
• Literature survey is mandatory
• Make sure it is practicable
• Dont be over ambitious
• A prototype demonstrating the functionality and
  behavior of your approach is needed
• A formal analysis of your results is needed

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Research type projects

• How to judge Acceptability/ success of your
  approach ?
• Alternative methods/ algorithms/ approaches must
  be reviewed
• A critical review of already published work
• Generation of proper test data
• Use of appropriate analysis and design techniques
  SSADM may not suite

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Implementation type projects..

• Need to identify a specific client to whom you
  develop the system
• That means your project would be a customized
  product
• Otherwise there is a possibility of a harder viva
• May find difficult to justify the scope of your
  project
• Difficult to prove the quality and acceptability
  of the final product

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Implementation type projects..

• Need to test your final system at your clients
  site and get his acceptance certificate as well
  as his/her feedback.
• Not a letter just saying he/ she is happy with
  the system
• Indicate client details for the PEB to clarify if
  needed
• No prototypes are acceptable

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Implementation type projects..

• User manuals, technical manuals, help/ tutorials
  must also be provided with your system
• Need to justify your choice of user interfaces
  with responses from users. Again you may use
  Software engineering module

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Implementation type projects..

• A finished product is needed
• Fully functional
• Evaluated by real users in an acceptable manner
• Client specific
• Otherwise difficult to check the completeness and
  user satisfaction

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Implementation type projects..

• Familiar with the development environment to
  replicate and demonstrate it
• If job-related preferred

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Project schedule

• Check whether your Gantt charts are realistic?

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Project proposal

• The PDF we have already published and your
  supervisor must be able to clarify/help you on
  that
• Completeness is very important

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Requirements definition

• Same as the PDF
• Your supervisor must be able to help you on this
  as well

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Log book

• To make sure and encourage the student to work
  continuously avoiding the last minute hassle
• Be honest
• Dont try to cheat the PEB only you will face the
  consequences of not maintaining it

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Dissertation

• A continuous job starting at the very beginning
  of your project
• Dont wait till the last moment, you may forget
  important facts to be included
• Proof reading is essential leave couple of weeks
  for it
• Will be your main text for the written paper
• No half done work please

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Documentation

• Manuals
• User manual
• Technical manual
• Configuration and fine tuning details
• Environment

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Exam paper

• Answers must be consistent with your dissertation
• Be honest again
• Defend it at the viva if there are anything
  missing
• If you were the person who did your project, it
  wont be difficult

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viva

• Make sure that you know what you are talking
• Be confident of the environment of your system,
  settings, implementation, configuration,
  weaknesses etc.
• Be honest with the PEB
• If found cheating, you will be heavily penalized

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viva

• Depending on the topic, quality of your work, you
  may be asked to organize your presentation by the
  PEB
• Only the s/w demo
• Presentation only
• Or BOTH