Robert Dale: Teaching Activities: ITEC810: Assessment: Project Proposals

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ITEC810 Project Proposals

This page outlines the requirements for project proposals. Note that this is a piece of work that is expected to take you around 5-6 days of effort, and is the result of you spending some time looking deeply into what is required to carry out your project. In particular, note that it requires you to plan at a more detailed level than you did for the presentation in Week 2. The expectation is that you will spend on the order of 20 hours working on your proposal, so if you are allocating the same amount of time to this unit each week, you will need to have started on this task before you submit the previous assignment.

Irrespective of whether you are doing ITEC808, 809, 810 or 811, the project proposal requirements are the same. The aim here is to get you to collect the important information together in 5-6 pages.

1 Submission Requirements

No later than 12 noon on Friday 21st August (Week 3), you should submit via the class Moodle website a 5-6 page project proposal that outlines the background to and objectives of your project, and lays out a plan for how you will achieve these objectives. This should be provided as a PDF document.

You should also provide five or six slides that you will use to give a five-minute presentation on your detailed task plan. Your presentation should begin with a title slide and then a slide that succinctly states the aim of your project; the remaining slides should provide a detailed picture of how you intend to carry out the project.

2 The Aims of this Assignment

This assignment has a number of aims.

It ensures you get a head start on your project early in the semester.
It forces you to learn enough about your topic to be able to develop a plan for how you will approach the problem.
It forces you to think about your project in terms of a plan with specific steps and deliverables, and a clearly specified outcome.
It provides me with a first example of what your writing is like, so I can determine particular areas of weakness that need to be addressed.

3 Proposal Format and Structure

See the samples page for some examples of project proposals.

Make sure your submission meets the following requirements.

Your proposal should have a cover page containing the title of your project, your name, yout student ID, and your supervisor's name.
The document should begin with an abstract or summary of 100-150 words in length that is able to stand alone as a concise and comprehensive description of your project.
Section 1 of your document should be entitled Project Description. This has two subsections:
- a 'Background' section of no more than one page in length, which sketches the background to the project, providing a context against which the significance of your project and its aims can be assessed; and
- an 'Aims, Significance and Expected Outcomes' section of around 1-2 pages in length, which clearly states the aims of your project, why it is important, and what the specific expected outcomes of the project are; you can use distinct subsubsections for each of these three topics if you feel this helps you structure your material.
Section 2 of your document should be entitled 'Methodology and Plan'. Again, this consists of two subsections:
- an 'Approach' or 'Methodology' section of around one page in length that outlines how you intend to go about solving the problem that your project addresses; and
- a 'Task Plan' section of around one page in length that lays out the sequence of steps involved; see below for further notes on your Task Plan.
You may also add a reference list or bibliography that contains full details of any materials cited in your project proposal text.

In terms of general formatting requirements:

Don't use a point size smaller than 11 point.
Make sure your pages and sections are numbered.
Make sure you thoroughly spell and grammar check your document before submitting it.

4 Task Plans

In many ways the Task Plan is the heart of your proposal: it's an explicit commitment to what you intend to do and when. For that reason, it needs to be very specific in a number of regards:

Each task should be given a number and a short descriptive name.
Each element in the task plan should have a clear descriptive paragraph so it is easy to see what is involved and what is not involved.
Each task should have a clearly specified deliverable, so that it is easy to determine when the task is completed. This might be a document or major part of a document, or a piece of working code, for example.
Each task should have a clearly specified delivery deadline. These should generally be one week apart, so that you can easily and clearly report against the task plan in your weekly progress reports. You may have tasks that contain subtasks, particularly if a task corresponds to several deliverable items; the bottom line is that you should make everything as srtucturally explicit as possible, so the correspondences between tasks, timeline, expected effort and specific outcomes is absolutely clear. Bear in mind that each elapsed week is assumed to correspond to around 9-10 hours of work on your project.

You should factor in the project-related assessable items for the unit as project deliverables, but obviously these should not be the only deliverables. Do not include your ethics assignment in your task plan, since this has nothing to do with your project.

Your Task Plan should be described in detail in your proposal document, but it should also be the focus of the slide presentation you submit along with your proposal. Most people's task plans will consist of four or five high-level tasks, each with some subtasks; you should allocate one slide per high-level task. In the class presentations, your aim will be to convince me that you have thought through the steps involved in your project in significant detail.

6 Assessment

Your project proposal is worth 15 marks. Proposals will be assessed by the unit convenor according to the following rubric:

Assessment
Attribute Levels of Attainment

Unsatisfactory Functional Proficient Advanced

Evidence of Effort No evidence that substantial thought has been put into the exercise. Evidence of having thought through the problem and what is involved, but with some weaknesses and gaps. Evidence of having thought hard about the problem and of having identified all the major issues that will be faced. Evidence of a thorough command of what is involved and what needs to be done to achieve a high quality outcome.

Exposition of Content Difficult to make sense of the background and approach to be taken. The presentation of the background and approach to be taken are understandable, if a little muddled. Background and approach clearly presented, so that a technically-literate reader will understands why the project is important, what outcomes will be achieved, and what methods will be used. High quality exposition; makes a compelling case for thr problem and its proposed solution, with clearly argued logic.

Quality and Depth of Planning No evidence that any careful thought has been put into determining the steps involved in achieving the project's goals. Some evidence of having though through what is involved, but not a very detailed level. Evidence of the application of careful thought to identifying the distinct steps involved in the project and the effort they require. Evidence of a high degree of ability in specifying tasks precisely and in making realistic estimates about the work involved.

Format and Presentation No obvious care given to the quality of presentation of the report. Technically meets the stated requirements for presentation format. Meets technical requirements and is also aesthetically pleasing. Exceptionally well presented.

Quality of Writing Very poor; problems with coherent presentation of ideas. Understandable, but with some problems in grammar, style and spelling. Grammar and style of an acceptable standard; could be safely given to an external party with only minor editing. High quality prose; well written; could comfortably be made available via a corporate website.

Assessment Attribute	Levels of Attainment
Unsatisfactory	Functional	Proficient	Advanced
Evidence of Effort	No evidence that substantial thought has been put into the exercise.	Evidence of having thought through the problem and what is involved, but with some weaknesses and gaps.	Evidence of having thought hard about the problem and of having identified all the major issues that will be faced.	Evidence of a thorough command of what is involved and what needs to be done to achieve a high quality outcome.
Exposition of Content	Difficult to make sense of the background and approach to be taken.	The presentation of the background and approach to be taken are understandable, if a little muddled.	Background and approach clearly presented, so that a technically-literate reader will understands why the project is important, what outcomes will be achieved, and what methods will be used.	High quality exposition; makes a compelling case for thr problem and its proposed solution, with clearly argued logic.
Quality and Depth of Planning	No evidence that any careful thought has been put into determining the steps involved in achieving the project's goals.	Some evidence of having though through what is involved, but not a very detailed level.	Evidence of the application of careful thought to identifying the distinct steps involved in the project and the effort they require.	Evidence of a high degree of ability in specifying tasks precisely and in making realistic estimates about the work involved.
Format and Presentation	No obvious care given to the quality of presentation of the report.	Technically meets the stated requirements for presentation format.	Meets technical requirements and is also aesthetically pleasing.	Exceptionally well presented.
Quality of Writing	Very poor; problems with coherent presentation of ideas.	Understandable, but with some problems in grammar, style and spelling.	Grammar and style of an acceptable standard; could be safely given to an external party with only minor editing.	High quality prose; well written; could comfortably be made available via a corporate website.