What Characterises a Good Project

1. 1 What Characterises a Good Project?

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3. 3 Student views of factors contributing to a �70+� project: Do sufficient research into existing applications/systems in your area of interest: Deep understanding of project area; Know what you are building on; Know what features you are going to emulate or extend; Don�t expect credit for what has already been done. Attendance at and input to Peer Group meetings: Listen, learn and keep up; Learn form the approaches of others that may be equal or better than yours; Sticking to project schedule - Good time management; Absorb feedback/constructive criticism and adapt accordingly. Effort.

4. 4 Student views of factors contributing to a �70+� project: High standards of implementation and testing. Increased functionality of existing system. Use of novel technologies. A fully working system. Good problem solving skills. Frequent meetings with supervisor. Good communication with supervisor. Well written report - clarity of expression/grammar/spelling. Reflection and analysis of failures and short comings.

5. 5 Student views of factors contributing to a �<50� project: Minimal effort. Doesn't meet system or user requirements. Implementation incomplete. No justification of why you did things. Doing things that aren�t required / specified. Little understanding of project area. Lack of evidence of work completed. Report badly written (formatting, spelling and grammar).

6. 6 Student views of factors contributing to a �<50� project: Not going to Peer Group meetings. Only appreciating the effort needed when it was too late. Not meeting with supervisor on a regular basis. Spending too much time on implementation and ignoring the write-up. Lack of structure. Getting stuck / staying stuck. Relying on your supervisor too much. Lack of motivation.

7. 7 Case Study 1. �70+� Project.Topic: Web-based transportation management system. Overview: context: developed in association with a local haulage company aim: to re-engineer existing load tracking system using web-based technology approach: modified waterfall with risk analysis technology: Java, Access, ODBC/JDBC, JDataConnect technology 70+

8. 8 Case Study 1. �70+� Project.Topic: Web-based transportation management system. Examiners� comments: �Very good overall. The student has exhibited a high level of competence in all areas of the project, clearly outlining what was required, what should be implemented, how it was implemented and tested and evaluated. A good appreciation was given to the work undertaken and its potential impact. In some instances of testing, full documentation regarding rationale is given but a lack of presentation of the results is evident�

9. 9 Case Study 1. �70+� Project.Topic: Web-based transportation management system. �Chapter Two - Detailed Design. This chapter covers the work performed during the detailed design phase. Firstly the functional design is described. This covers the work performed in identifying the system logic and for constructing the Task Hierarchy Diagrams and pseudocode methods. The data design, used to specify how the database should be organised and the Java classes structured, is then listed. Finally the interface design is described. This gives details of how the screen layouts were planned and describes the rationale for including certain features��

10. 10 Case Study 1. �70+� Project.Topic: Web-based transportation management system.

11. 11 Case Study 1. �70+� Project.Topic: Web-based transportation management system.

12. 12 Another example of good practice found in reports:

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14. 14 Case Study 2. �<50� Project.Topic: Graphical user interface for an artificial intelligence system. Overview: context: a tool to support graphical representation of facts and knowledge for evidential reasoning. aim: to describe experts� knowledge and information through graphs and other visual means. approach: ? (was not described in report) technology: Delphi < 50

15. 15 Case Study 2. �<50� Project.Topic: Graphical user interface for an artificial intelligence system Examiner comments: Superficial understanding. No appreciation of testing. Design just about subjective choice of screen designs? Not sure where implementation was described in report. Unclear how much, if any, code is student�s own. Student should be asked to implement an algorithm so that system does something useful.

16. 16 Case Study 2. �<50� Project.Topic: Graphical user interface for an artificial intelligence system � Interface design To design a quality interface I need to create and evaluate a few different screen layouts. The designs I have come up with are� [Layout 1�] [Layout 2�] [Layout 3�] � �Conclusion After careful evaluation of the above designs I believe that Layout 2 is the most appropriate. The layout is clear and simple with the buttons on the left and the display area on the right and the drop-down menu option is also more appropriate that the pop-up version in Layout 1. With Layout 3 I think the display is quite confusing. So overall Layout 2 looks the most balanced and suitable for an Artificial Intelligence application. �

17. 17 Case Study 2. �<50� Project.Topic: Graphical user interface for an artificial intelligence system

18. 18 Adopt an Engineering Approach! Consider the following engineering processes: Requirements Development Requirements Management Technical Solution Product Integration Verification Validation All of these processes will play a part in your project if you are building a product or service. It is good practice to understand and implement the objectives of these processes.

19. 19 Assessing different types of projects?