Personal Development and

Research Methods
CE00542-M

Preparing your Proposal

MSc in Information Technology Management
MSc in Technology Management
MSc in Software Engineering
MSc in Mobile Computer Systems
MSc in Computing
MSc in E-Commerce
MSc in Multimedia Applications Management

Recap

Based on your intended dissertation

You should have a rough dissertation idea forming
Follow only the given format
Use Turnitin before hand in

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Layout and allocation

Title
Introduction 10%
Dissertation background 10%
Dissertation aims / objectives 20%
Intellectual challenge 10%
Research programme 30%
Deliverables 10%
Resources 10%

(References integrated, and reference section at back)

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Title

Cannot be:
Mobile Networking
E-Commerce
Designing web pages
Needs to be more along the lines of:
A dissertation to research, analyse, investigate,
design, implement, test, evaluate and conclude on
an E-Commerce system for marketing services
Must have an artefact
Not just research / literature review

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Artefact

A product designed, built and tested

Could be:
Software / prototype
Guidelines
Model / notation
Method / module / framework
Requirement specification / design document

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Introduction (300 words)

Assume reader has no existing knowledge

Introduce the topic
Identify the problem
Set a context
- Research / computing area
How does your project relate to this?
How does it relate to your studies (name your award)
Identify briefly the work required to solve the
problem
Summary written style / must be direct
How are you going to test?

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Dissertation background (300

words)
Identify past and current works
Outline the key references
Provide a mini literature review
3 to 5 sources in detail - up to 10
Briefly explain each
Briefly compare each
Add your own insights
Discuss their value to dissertation
Reference in body using Harvard with full references
in the references section at the end

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Referencing

In text
Quote Campion (2000) reads as weak
...this work is similar to that of Campion (2000)
At the back of proposal
Campion, R. J., Crum, G. P. and Liu, K. (2000)
TRIuMPh: A Method for Multimedia Interface Design,
ICSSEA Int. Con., Software & Systems Engineering
and their Applications, Paris.

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Aims & Objectives (300

words)
Aims (What you intend to achieve)
One aim or two as a maximum
Objectives (how to achieve aim)
Objectives need to be measurable
Could be:
Formulate research programme
Research of given areas
Research design approaches
Need to develop implementation skills
Testing strategy development
Ethics approach
CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

University ethics
Need to complete a fast track or full ethics form for a
dissertation (but not at proposal stage)
Fast track application
Deals with simple voluntary, consent etc.
Informs users of confidentiality issues
Should have no physical or psychological risks
Does not involve animals
Or, none of the following children (under 18 years),
no one with learning difficulties, people in custody,
vulnerable people, people engaged in illegal activity

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

University ethics
Full ethics application
Looks at perceived benefits against possible
risks
Identifies potential risks and hazards
Discomfort, distress and inconvenience

Testing in general
Need to address human issues
Timings / rests etc.
Confidentiality of results

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Intellectual challenge (300

words)
Academic challenges for you personally:
Carrying out a literature review
Identifying strands of research to follow
Adding your own perspectives
New programming skills to learn
Working on your own / project planning
Time keeping project mgmt
Working with supervisors Convincing/defending
Design notations etc.
Testing approaches
Conclusions writing critical evaluation
Working ethically

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Research Programme (900

words)
Describe the programme to be followed
Include a stage by stage plan showing activities to
be undertaken
Show milestones and deliverables
Typical timescales (total 24 weeks)
Research / analysis 2 to 3 weeks
Research / further investigation 3 to 6 weeks
Design / method notations 3 to 5 weeks
Implementation 5 weeks

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Research Programme (900

words)
Testing 3 weeks
Test programme
Function testing / personal
User testing - 5 / 10 users
Convention / criteria, or guidelines
Evaluation and conclusions 1 week
Reflection
Strengths / weaknesses
Future areas to explore
Remaining time spent improving and re-improving
CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Deliverables (300 words)

Identify the tangible outputs / products
Anything produced of value
Dissertation
Publishable literature review
Artefact
Rough analysis?
Models / set of designs?
Testing framework
A set of requirements
Guidelines
Results
Etc

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Resources (100 words)

In detail
Hardware
Software
Users? remember ethics
Advice / expertise?
Web space?
Library

CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal

Reference sources
Average is around 10 sources
From
Journals
Conference papers
Books
Internet

Not Wikipedia
CE00542-M Personal Development and Research Methods

Preparing Your Proposal