Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PROPOSAL FORMULATION

THE PROJECT TITLE/ TITLE OF YOUR STUDY GOES HERE

What , how, where

SURNAME, OTHER NAMES

Admission Number

An Information Systems Project Proposal/ Documentation submitted to the

Faculty of Information Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the award of the Diploma in Business Information Technology of Strathmore
University

Strathmore Institute of Management and Technology

Strathmore University

Nairobi, Kenya

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

Date

Declaration

We declare that this work has not been previously submitted and approved for the
award of a Diploma by this or any other University. To the best of our knowledge
and belief, the proposal/document contains no material previously published or
written by another person except where due reference is made in the proposal/
document itself.

Student’s Signature:

………………………………………………. [Name]

………………………………………………. [Signature]

………………………………………………. [Date]

Approval

The Information System Project proposal/ documentation of [Student’s full Name]

was reviewed and approved (for examination) by:

Supervisor’s Title and Name:

………………………………………………. [Signature]

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

………………………………………………. [Date]

Order of the Preliminary Pages

Cover Page
Declaration and Approval
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Figures/Tables/Equations/Authorities
List of Abbreviation
Operational Definition of Terms

Abstract
Not exceeding 200 words should state the problem investigated, aims/scope, outline
the methods used and summarize the expected outputs and impacts.

-reported speech/ third person narration

-Proposal is in future tense
Final report- past tense; present continuous
Formatting: Font Times New Roman; font size 12; 1.5 line spacing; Justified
aligment
Headings 1 and 2 should be bold;
No lists in the documents(except research objectives and questions)- no bulleting;
roman numberings
Avoid spoken grammar

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

The environment around the problem- contextual placement of the problem

Sound Analysis Prototype to Enhance Physical Security in Academic Institutions

using Recurrent Neural Networks (Difrancesco et al., 2018)
Physical security- academic institutions
Recurrent Neural Networks
Sound analysis-application
Sound processing algorithms

- A smart parking solution for Malls around Nairobi Area using IoT and
Machine Learning
Mall development; visits to malls
Parking as a problem within the city
IOT and how it can be used to automate functions
ML can be used in tandem IOT
conclusions
2. Name: Description [might be an app or a web based solution]
- Appdata: A Mobile Application that Sends Mobile Data to Multiple Users
- Uber: A mobile based taxi Hailing Application
- Emmah: An Intelligent Chatbot that assists travellers in Booking Bus Tickets
3. A case of something. [A specific case]
- A Web Based Application to Enhance Service Delivery in Marginalised
areas: A Case of Northern Kenya

1.2 Problem Statement

Description of the specific challenge being addressed
2 paragraphs- 1- problem desc; 2- proposed solution
1.3 General Aim

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

The expected outcome at the end of the project

To develop an android based taxi hailing application. The application aims to…
1.4: Research/Specific Objectives
3<= Specific objectives<=5
SMART-specific, measurable, achievable, result-oriented, time-bound
Taxi hailing-Uber
i. To investigate the parameters considered when hailing taxis-
proximity, price, security, car type
ii. To review technologies that support taxi hailing application
iii. To review similar/ related systems and identify gaps in these
systems
iv. To design an android based taxi hailing application
v. To develop the application
vi. To test the application
vii. To document the application
viii. To deploy the application
ix. To training on how the app
x. To release maintenance updates on the app

1.4 Research questions

What are the parameters considered when hailing taxis?
What technologies are enabler to/support taxi hailing applications?
How can an android based taxi hailing application be designed?
How can the application be developed?
To test the application

1.5 Justification/Significance of the Study

What are the potential benefits were the applications developed deployed
1.6 Scope
What are the boundaries within which the project will be implemented?
1.8 Limitations and Delimitations

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

Limitations- expected challenges to the workings of the proposed system

Delimitations- how you intend to overcome the shortcomings/ challenges

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
Discussion of what the chapter is about
2.2 Title that is based on Objective I (In Line with Objective 1)- Parameters
considered when hailing Taxis -proximity, cost, best-route,
2.3 Title that is related to objective ii (In line with Objective 2)- Technologies
that support taxi hailing application (Technological enablers to taxi hailing
application)- Location tracking, mobility of devices, mobile and e-payment systems
2.4 Title related to objective 3 (In line with Objective 3)- Related
Works/similar systems
2.5 Conceptual framework

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction
3.2 System Development methodology and its Justification

Waterfall:
Requirements gathering: elicitation user requirements; how will the project do user
requirements gathering: Observations->secondary data- review articles, related
papers and projects, publications and derive requirements from these sources
Analysis: Quantification the results; understanding of the working of the proposed
system: Define: the analysis approach to be used: OOAD/SSAD; define the analysis
diagrams to be drawn
Design: representation based on the processes analyzed; Approach is defined; design
diagrams will be drawn- Database schema; Wireframes-interface mockups, system
architecture diagram

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

Development: Approach OOAD->OOP; SSAP-> Procedural programming;

Development tools that will be used for the project
Testing: how modules will be tested- Blackbox testing, unit/integration testing;
usability
Implementation and integration: Pilot/ phased implementation (deploy and release the
application)
Maintenance: version 2.0; maintenance cycles

3.4 Tools and techniques Applied

Tools- Applications, frameworks, libraries, platforms, DBMS- used for the project
3.5 Deliverables and Milestones
Research deliverables and Development deliverables
Proposal
Analysis and Design Diagrams document
Working Prototype/Demo
Authentication Module
Driver Module
Passenger module
Navigation module
Payment module
Ratings Module
Test Cases
Project Documentation report
User manual
Developer Manual

3.6 Project Gantt Chart/Activity Schedule

Breakdown of how the time will be used for the project

Appendices
Gantt chart

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

Marking Guide
References

Al-Hamami, A. H., & Al-Saadoon, G. M. W. (2013). Development of a Network-

based Intrusion Prevention System using a Data Mining Approach. Science

and Information Conference 2013.

Difrancesco, S., Zipunnikov, V., Schoevers, R. A., Riese, H., Antypa, N., Penninx, B.

W. J. H., Merikangas, K. R., Hemert, A. A. M. van, & Lamers, F. (2018).

Gross Motor Activity Patterns in Depression and Anxiety. 2018 IEEE 14th

International Conference on E-Science (e-Science), 286–286.

https://doi.org/10.1109/eScience.2018.00053

A state-space model for integration of battery energy storage systems in bulk power grids.

(n.d.).

Kathembo, T. (2020). DNS is what lets users connect to websites using domain

names instead of IP addresses. Learn how DNS works.

https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/dns/what-is-dns/

Niu, M., Tao, J., Liu, B., Huang, J., & Lian, Z. (2020). Multimodal Spatiotemporal

Representation for Automatic Depression Level Detection. IEEE Transactions

on Affective Computing, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAFFC.2020.3031345

Park, N. J., Lee, M., Han, D.-S., Cho, C., & Cho, J. (2008). A mobile healthcare

questionnaire service framework using composite Web services.

https://doi.org/0.1109/HEALTH.2008.4600100

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

REFERENCES

Only literature that is available should be cited. Material not available through
libraries, such as personal communications or unpublished data, should be given in
text as parenthetical matter. The source of data and date should be included (e.g.
Kavuli, 2011). Where possible only significant, published reference should be cited
(preferably more accessible source of such publications).

Make use of APA in text citation style.

In general, references in text can be cited as follows.

For a single author:

either

Orero (2013) outlines that the computational framework of M-Dairy is based on

voice.

or

The computational framework of M-Dairy is based on voice Orero (2013).

For two authors:

Onderi and Orero (2011) have already outlined that the computational framework of
M-Dairy can be based on voice.

or

The computational framework of M-Dairy can be based on voice Onderi and Orero
(2011)

For more than two authors:

Onderi et al. (2011) had also proposed a similar model using the computational
framework of MDairy based on voice.

or

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

A similar model using the computational framework of M-Dairy in based on voice

has been proposed (Onderi et al. , 2011)

For two or more articles by the same author(s) in the same year, designate them as
follows:

Kibe (2009a, b) or Kibe et al. (2009a, b).

Referencing should be as follows.

References section to periodical publications

Boiten, F. A. (1998). The effects of emotional behavior on components of the

respiratory cycle.

Biological Psychology, 49 , 29-51. Bouchon-Meunier, B., Rifqi, M., & Bothorel, S.

(1996). Towards general measures of comparison of objects. Fuzzy Sets and
Systems, 84 , 143-153.

Reference to textbooks

Bouchon-Meunier, B. (1998). Aggregation and Fusion of Imperfect Information.

Physica-Verlag, Spring-Verlag Company.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Harper and Row Flow: The psychology of optimal

experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Reference to proceedings

Malone, T. W. (1980). What makes things fun to learn? heuristics for designing
instructional computer games. In ACM SIGSMALL symposium and SIGPC
symposium on Small systems.

Rigney, M. P. , Kranzler, G. A. (1989). Seedling classification performance of

neural network. Paper No. 897523, St Joseph, MI 49085, American Society of
Agricultural Engineers.

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

The references should be listed in alphabetical order by surnames of authors. Two or

more articles by the same author(s) should be listed chronologically; two or more in
the same year are indicated by letters, a, b, c, etc. All single-authored articles of a
given individual should precede multiple author articles of which the individual is
senior author. Entries with the same senior author should be organised by
alphabetising surnames of succeeding co-authors and then by year, when the name is
repeated exactly.

Reference to website

Omoke, P.K. (2013). The government survey on digital compliance. Daily Nation.
Available online: http//www.nation.net/news last accessed 11 December 2013.

Examples

References

Boiten, F. A., Frijda, N. H., & Wientjes, C. J. (1994). Emotions and respiratory
patterns: review and critical analysis. International Journal of
Psychophysiology, 17 , 103-128.

Bouchon-Meunier, B. (1998). Aggregation and Fusion of Imperfect Information.

Physica-Verlag, Spring-Verlag Company.

Bouchon-Meunier, B., Rifqi, M., & Bothorel, S. (1996). Towards general measures of
comparison of objects. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 84 , 143-153.

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more
 Proposal Writing GUIDELINES

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRES (if any)

APPENDIX B: GANTT CHART OR ACTIVITY SCHEDULE

NOTE: These are just guidelines on the minimum. You are free to adopt better and more