Project Name

By
Student Name
Student No.
Supervisor: Name of Supervisor

A Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Diploma of Computer Science,
School of Computing Sciences Riara University
Nairobi, Kenya

Date Submitted

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Declaration
I declare that this or any other University has not previously submitted this work for the
awarding of the course marks. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this wok contains no
material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

Student Name:
………………………………………….
Signature:
………………………………………….
Date:
………………………………………….
………………………………………….

APPROVAL
The project proposal of student name was reviewed and approved by the following:
Supervisor Name:
Signature: …………………

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Dedication

Dedicate your study to those you love, honour and/or respect.

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Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement of all those who participated in the study, listing the part they played

4
 Abstract
This should be two or three short paragraphs (100-150 words total), summarising the
dissertation. It is important that this is not just a restatement of the original project outline. A
suggested flow is background, project aims and main achievements. A bad abstract would have
a final paragraph that just said "the achievements will be described" - this is useless, as it says
nothing. From the abstract a reader should be able to ascertain if the project is of interest to
them and presents results of which they would like to know more details.

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Table of Contents

DECLARATION
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
DEFINITION OF TERMS
ABBREVIATIONS
ACRONYMS
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY/ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
CHATER FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION, TESTING AND RESULT
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION, EVALUATION AND FURTHER WORK
REFERENCES
APPENDIX

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1 List of Figures

Graph, photo and maps should be listed here. Assign the numbers according to Chapter and
their position in the Chapter. Fig. 3-2 means the figure is in Chapter 3 and is the second figure
in that Chapter.

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List of Tables
All table numbers should be listed in this page. Tab. 4-4 means the Table is in Chapter 4 and is
the 4th Table in that Chapter.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The introduction has several purposes. Clearly one is to set the scene for the project by giving a
little relevant background information - try to grab the reader's interest early. Another is to
clearly elucidate the aims and objectives of the project and the constraints that might affect the
way in which the project is carried out. If the project involves the solution of a specific problem
or the production of a specific system this should be clearly specified in an informal way.

Finally, the introduction should summarize the remaining chapters of the dissertation, in effect
giving the reader an overview of what is to come. The type of project will dictate the content and
structure of the following chapters and you should discuss this with your supervisor.

At the end of chapter 1, you should include a brief discussion of your view of the relationship
between your project, and your degree Programme. In your discussion, you should mention any
advantages or challenges created by this relationship.

May have the following sub chapters:

1.1Introduction: Describe the background of the project work. Establish the context. Discuss
why this problem is important.
1.2 Problem Statement: clear concise description of the issue(s) that need(s) to be addressed by
the project. Explain the problem your process improvement project will address.
1.3. Objectives: Describe the problem that you set out to solve and the solutions you have
achieved.
1.4. Justification.
1.5 Scope

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

It is often useful to start this chapter with an overview of its contents, giving the reasoning
behind why you have structured it in a particular way. The main thrust of the chapter is a review
of relevant work by other authors and the relationship between this and your own work. If
several other people have done closely related work in a different way then the reasons for your
approach should be summarised here.

A good literature review is synthetic: general trends and positions in your project area should be
identified, and the papers you cite should be compared and contrasted. A literature review is not
simply an annotated list of papers you may have read. It should cover a range of relevant
material to your project. Everything you use should be cited by reference to the references at the
end of your dissertation.

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Everything that you write must be your own words and you must cite other people using
references. You may also quote sentences from the work of others. These must be included in
quotation marks and again the relevant work must be cited. Your signed declaration means that
you will fail your dissertation if you do not acknowledge the work of others.

2 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY/ ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

If your project involves designing a system, give a good high-level overview of your design. In
many projects, the initial design and the final design differ somewhat. If the differences are
interesting, write about them, and why the changes were made.

If your design was not implemented fully, describe which parts you did implement, and which
you didn't. If the reason you didn't implement everything is interesting (e.g. it turned out to be
difficult for unexpected reasons), write about it.

May include the following sub chapters:

3.1 Analysis and Requirements: Describe how you did requirements elicitation, conducted the
analysis, and arrived at the specified requirements. Provide analysis models, not just words.
Some suggested model elements are: use cases, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams, and
domain models.

3.2 Design: Describe the architectural and detailed design models in a disciplined manner using
both text and comprehensive design models, ideally expressed in UML. Use of UML is highly
recommended over using ad hoc or older modelling notations. Suggested UML design model
elements are: class diagrams, interaction diagrams, structured classes, components, subsystems,
and deployment models. Provide a comprehensive design model with sufficient design
information, not just one or two top level model diagrams.

Note that to describe a design adequately you must describe both its static view and the dynamic
view. The static view includes elements such as: classes with inheritance and aggregation,
structured classes, interfaces, components, subsystems, and deployment. The dynamic view
includes: activity diagrams, sequence or communication diagrams, and the state model, when
appropriate. Remember that, in most projects, the design model is the main aspect of your work,
and it deserves a good deal of your attention.

CHATER FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION, TESTING AND RESULT

Implementation: Describe the implementation approach. Describe software reuse, design
patterns, special coding techniques, etc. Describe special tools used, if any. Discuss the reasons
why you chose the specific programming language, development tools, testing tools, and the
implementation platform. Discuss strategies for reuse of existing products and components. Use
of design patterns in the implementation demonstrates sophistication in the subject matter and is

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highly encouraged. Generally, you do not need to provide source code in the thesis, unless that
code is central to your thesis, e.g. if you created new design patterns and need to describe the
logic of those design patterns using code. However, note that describing design logic using
detailed design models demonstrates a higher level of expertise than using code to do the same.

Testing: Test plan -- how the program/system was verified. Put the actual test results in the
Appendix. This section is useful if your project is more on the software engineering side.

Result: present all the results generated during the project. This chapter should detail the types
of experiments/simulations that were carried out with the code written. Why were certain
experiments carried out but not others? What were the important parameters in the simulation
and how did they affect the results? This may also include some off-topic findings that were not
expected, or which were side-effects of other explorations. Goals achieved - describes the degree
to which the findings support the original objectives laid out for the project. The goals may be
partially or fully achieved, or exceeded. Note that reporting of failures to achieve goals is
important since a fundamental feature of the assessment procedures is that the processes (how
you went about your project) are often as important as the products of the project.

3 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION, EVALUATION AND FURTHER WORK

What have you achieved? Give a critical appraisal (evaluation) of your own work - how could
the work be taken further (perhaps by another student next year)?

4 REFERENCES
Cite the source of literature you referred to using APA format

APPENDICES
Use Appendices to present material that will interrupt the flow if included in the main body of
the thesis. Typical contents of appendices include:

Code, data tables, detailed analysis and design models. If a user manual is called for, then
provide it in an appendix

If your project is an application the following maybe useful

o System manual
This should include all the technical details (where is the code? what do you type to compile it?
etc) that would enable a student to continue your project next year, to be able to amend your
code and extend it.
o User manual

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This should give enough information for someone to use what you have designed and
implemented.
o Test results
If you have test results that add to the value of the report, but which would not fit within the page
limit of the main report, you can include then as an appendix. Don't add them just to pad the
report though.
 

5 DOCUMENT FORMATTING
 Numbered at the bottom centre.
 Numeral page numbering begins with the first page of Chapter 1, Page 1 is shown at the
bottom of that Page.
 Pages are single sided, 1.5 line spacing
 There is one blank line between a section heading and the text that follows it.
 The default font 12, Times New Roman, is commonly used and same font must be used
throughout the manuscript, except: Tables and graphs use a different font (smaller),
Chapter titles and section headings also use a different font (larger).

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