Final Year Project Workshops

Workshop 1 – Planning

Cornelia BoldyreffDepartment of Computer

ScienceUniversity of Durham

Important Points to Note

Dr Paul Callaghan (email: P.C.Callaghan@durham.ac.ukis the project coordinator this year.

Reallocation of supervisors: changes in staff over the summer mean that some people will have different supervisors. The revised allocation list will shortly appear on the undergraduate notices page.

Project workshops: Dr Cornelia Boldyreff will give these in the first term. All will be at 9 a.m. in CG 60. The next workshop will be in week 4.

Note that these workshops are compulsory for _all_ project students (both CS and SE projects).

 

Project Web pages

Web page information: Important information for the projects is located on the pages listed below. Read these carefully - they are the main source of information about projects. In particular, note the project deadlines.

Introductory notes http://www.dur.ac.uk/computer.science/ug/handbook/mods/y3proj/project.html (CS) http://www.dur.ac.uk/cs.tqa/latestversionsubmodule.php3?submodule=SEProj (SE)

Full detailshttp://www.dur.ac.uk/computer.science/ug/handbook/mods/y3proj/proj-furtherdesc.html (CS) http://www.dur.ac.uk/computer.science/ug/handbook/mods/y3proj/SEproj/SE_index.html (SE)

Change to Assessment

Only affects assessment for the CS projects: From this year, your supervisor will be one of the report and oral exam markers, the other being another lecturer in the department.

This arrangement is already the case for SE projects.

(The previous arrangement was to have two independent markers with the supervisor contributing process marks.)

Responsibilities of the Supervisor

to give guidance about the nature of the project and the standard expected, about the planning of the project, about literature and sources, about techniques and methods and about any problems of plagiarism;

to maintain contact via regular tutorial meetings; to be accessible within reason at other times for giving advice to

the student; to give detailed advice on milestones; to request written work as appropriate and return such work with

constructive criticism within a reasonable time; to ensure that a student is made aware of any inadequacy of

progress, or of standards of work below those expected; to encourage the student to produce early draft chapters, to

comment on them critically and return the comments promptly. If the student does not do so, this is the student's responsibility.

Responsibilities of the Student to agree on a schedule of meetings with the supervisor and to

attend such meetings; to take the initiative in raising problems, however elementary

they may seem; to maintain the progress of the work in accordance with the

milestones and objectives agreed with the supervisor; to contribute to planning the project and monitoring progress

against the plan; to keep a project log for recording results, ideas, references etc.

acquired as the project progresses; to determine the contents of the report and of oral presentations; to present draft chapters to the supervisor before the Easter

vacation. There is no obligation on supervisors to read drafts during the vacation.

In summary, the management of the project and the course that it takes, are ultimately the responsibility of the student.

First Deliverable Due - end of week 2

Preliminary plan: you need to produce a one-page (minimum) plan by the end of week two, and hand it electronicly as well as in hard copy to the office.

Hard copy is required as these will be distributed back to your supervisor who will discuss the plan with you.

Key Objectives of today’s workshop

Detailed planning of the basic deliverable phase and "abstract“ planning of the later phases, to be followed by a 2nd planning exercise after the January benchtest to clarify planning for the remainder of the project. (Plan for plan revision!)

Decomposition of the basic deliverable into a partially ordered network of components, to help you to prioritise tasks and define ways of making initial rapid progress.

Consider time management to allow students to schedule your activities in term 1 and to raise any forseeable problems with supervisors.

Planning your project Work in project groups – 4 or 5 students at most Each group to identify together the key tasks

involved in their basic deliverables, an ordering on those tasks and any new skills you think you will need to do the project successfully. Use GANTT or PERT charts.

Important in each case to state the project goals and what your basic deliverable entails – start with the project description from your supervisor.

Plan regular meetings with your supervisor every two weeks. Concentrate on planning for the basic deliverable to get a clear

plan for tackling that over the next 3 months. And plan to re-plan later on as your project progresses and you

have a better understanding of your project enabling you to predict how design choices made now will affect their later goals.

Some fixed points

SE Projects – Design Review at end of term 1

All projects – Presentation at beginning of next term and Benchtest with supervisor

Project Hand-in – 1 week after Easter break

GANTT Chart

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/

PERT Chart

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/

Further details on Planning

Chapters on Planning in Project booksConsult past project reports – plans

found in chapter 1 of the report.Also see:SE Notes on Project PlanningOn-line Notes based on these athttp://www.dur.ac.uk/cornelia.boldyreff/ASEI/ASEIlect2.ppt