Guidelines for Preparation of Project Proposal

ITE 3999 – Final Year Project

Bachelor of Information Technology (External) Degree

Faculty of Information Technology
University of Moratuwa
General Guidelines for Prepare Project Proposal

Introduction
Your project proposal must justify the importance of the problem, your ability to
solve the problem and the soundness of the solution. It must be prepared in
accordance with the following instructions that come under sections of General
Guidelines and Structure of the Proposal in this document

Submission: Upload the pdf version of project proposal that is prepared as per the
following instructions to the Moodle. Name the proposal as
“Surname_Initials_RegistrationNo”.
Length: It must be of minimum 4 pages: excluding the title page and table of contents.
Lettering: Times New Roman.
Spacing: Single line spacing Margins: Left, 1-1/4 inches; top, bottom, and right, 1 inch.
Sections/sub sections: The proposal must be structured with the sections listed under
the ‘Body of the Proposal’ given below. The Arabic numbering system must be used for
numbering of Sections/Subsections.
Tables and Figures: All Tables and Figures must be named with captions, and cited inside
the text.
References and Citations: The list of references must be arranged in the
alphabetical order of the name of the first author, and numbered in square
brackets. The corresponding number of a reference must be used to cite the
particular work inside the text. All items in the list of references must be cited
inside the text.
Pagination: Each page should have page numbers except the “Title” page. Lower case
Roman numerals should be assigned centered at the bottom of the page to all
“preliminary pages” (Refer Appendix II; i - ix in content page). Pagination of the body
text and appendices is to be in Arabic numerals centered at the bottom of the page.
The pagination begins with the first page of the “Introduction” and continues
throughout the rest of the text.

Tables & Figures: Tables are grids consisting of columns and rows that present
numerical or verbal facts by categories. Figures include charts, graphs, diagrams,
photographs, maps, drawings and other images. All these types of non-textual
material are collectively referred to as illustrations.
All tables and figures must be referred to in the text by number (not by a phrase such
as "the following table"). Charts, graphs, maps, and tables that are larger than the
standard page should be attached as Appendices. Tables, illustrations and captions
should be centered (See figure 1 and table 1).

Figure 1: Asthma Registry Categories

Source: http://www.pamf.org/asthma/education/outcomes.html

Table 1: Computer Literacy Rate in Sri Lanka – 2016

Source: http://www.statistics.gov.lk/education/ComputerLiteracy-2016.pdf

Whenever there is a figure/table, you must cite it using the caption of the
figure/table within the text. If a figure/table is not cited and explained within the
text, such figures/tables are inappropriate to include in the document.
Organizing the Project Proposal: You should assemble the following items in the
order given, in composing the final documentation. Details of these topics are
given below.
• Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of abbreviations
• List of Appendices
• Introduction
• Background and Motivation

• Your Problem in Brief

• Proposed Solution
• Reference List
• Appendix A: Title
• Appendix B: Title

Structure of the Project Proposal

The proposal must be structured with the cover page, table of content,
preliminary pages and the headings listed below. Note that the names of the
headings given below are too generic and you may rename them to reflect your
project. All headings must be numbered (12 font, bold), and the body of the text
must be 12 in font size.
ITE 3999 – Final Year Project

Project Proposal

<Project Title>

Submitted by:
<Registration Number>
<Name with Initials>

Bachelor of Information Technology (External Degree)

Faculty of Information Technology
University of Moratuwa
Table of Content

<This is a list of sections and subsections with page numbers. Although a project
proposal has only a few pages, it would be nice to include a table of contents for
the proposal (A Sample given below)>

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures i
List of Tables ii
List of abbreviations iii
List of Appendices iv
1. Introduction 1
2. Background & Motivation 2
3. Your Problem in Brief 3
4. Aim & Objectives 3
5. Proposed Solution 4
Reference List 5
Appendix A: Title 6
Appendix B: Title 7

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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1.1 Figure Name 2
Figure 1.2 Figure Name 3
Figure 2.1 Figure Name 4
Figure 2.2 Figure Name 5

LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1 Table Name 2
Table 3.2 Table Name 3
Table 4.1 Table Name 4
Table 4.2 Table Name 4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation Description

ACM Association for Computing Machinery

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
CODL Center for Open and Distance Learning

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Description Page

Appendix - A Plan of actions 5

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1. Introduction
<This is the first chapter/part of your proposal. Introduction is the part of the
document that tries to introduce the document in an interesting manner to the
reader. Introduction is all about what a reader can expect in the document, in a
concise manner. However, the introduction contains all the major points that are
actually covered in the document. Introduction has to be presented in such a
manner so that it lures the reader into reading the entire document.
Therefore, this section must give a brief description about the problem area,
the problem that you address, the importance of the problem, technology to
solve the problem and the nature of the solution you propose.>

2. Background & Motivation

<This is one of the most important sections of a project proposal. Background of
a project proposal is written with the intention of clarifying the importance and the
necessity of the project in the first place. Why the study and what the basic purpose
behind the project are the major questions that are answered through background
that is presented with a project proposal. It is hard to expect a reader to read the full
document without creating a background as to what made the writer prepare the
document. Background information is necessary as often a reader is interested in
knowing the incidents prior to the project. It is like the foundation stone of a building
upon which the entire edifice later stands.
This section finally points out the problem that you address in the project. If the
problem is not worth addressing, then there is no project! Here you should describe
the background of the problem domain you selected. Write why the problem is so
important to solve. Whenever possible, support the importance of the problem with
some references, key persons/sources. Also explain why you are motivated, and
your capability to address the problem. At the end of this section, you may have
pointed out several issues, but arguably identified one exact problem to solve.>

3. Problem you address in brief

<You may rename this heading to reflect the problem that you address. For
example, the heading can be: Major issue – Communication gap.
The problem is a paragraph or more in length.
8 It describes the problem you are
aiming to solve. You don’t have to say how you intend to solve the problem, only
what the problem is. Since the previous section pointed out several problems,
here briefly write the specific problem that you are going to address.>

4. Aim & Objectives

<This section describes what will be accomplished or tested in the project. The
primary focus of your research project is usually expressed in terms of aims
and objectives>
Aim = what you hope to achieve.
Objective = the action(s) you will take in order to achieve the aim.

Aims are statements of intent. They are usually written in broad terms. They
set out what you hope to achieve at the end of the project.

Write a sentence similar to ‘The aim of this project is to develop a system for
addressing <your problem>.

Objectives, on the other hand, should be specific statements that define

measurable outcomes, e.g. what steps will be taken to achieve the desired
outcome. When writing your objectives try to use strong positive statements.

build, collect, construct, classify, develop, devise, measure, produce, revise,

select, synthesize etc.

When writing aims, use active and measurable terms, e.g., to identify, to
characterize vs. to study

Sample: How to write aim and objectives (extracted from the final year project
report of BIT student, Reg No E141041082, Rajapakshe RMM)

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 Project Title: Smart Car Park (holdOn)

Aim:

To develop a web application and automated parking environment to address

the smart car parking system using IoT technologies.
Objectives:
• To conduct a critical review of existing smart car parking systems
• To do and in-depth study of technologies used to develop smart car parking
systems
• To design and develop a web application and automated parking
environment to address the problem
• To conduct a formal evaluation of the system

5. Proposed Solution
<Here you may give a better heading to reflect your project. For example, the
heading can be ‘Character Recognition Using Artificial Neural Network,
instead of the generic title Proposed Solution. This is also one of the major
sections of the proposal. In this section, you should describe the solution as
detailed as possible. As such you should write about technology to be adopted,
nature of solution (input, output, process, users etc.), feasibility of
implementation of the solution, your capability to solve the problem, and
availability of resources. If relevant, add a figure for this section.>

References and Citations

<Your writing must be supported by some sources of information. That
information should be listed under a title called ‘References’ at the end of the
body of the proposal. The items in the list of references are referred inside the
body of the text, and they are called citations. There are various referencing
and citation styles, and you must use the following style in the project proposal.
The reference styles for Books, Journal papers, papers in conference
proceedings and web are slightly different. However, all reference styles report
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on essential information such as author, year,
0 title of the paper and publisher
in the given order. The number appearing within square brackets in front of
each entry is used to cite the particular reference inside the body of the text.>

Guidelines on how to use references can be found from below links.

IEEE Reference Style
http://www.lib.mrt.ac.lk/images/User%20Education_%20Guidelines_IEEE.pdf
APA Reference Style
http://www.lib.mrt.ac.lk/images/User%20Education_%20Guidelines_APA.pdf
Note that everything you included in the list of references must necessarily be
cited inside the body of the text.

Referencing Tools
These referencing tools will help you format your references correctly and/or keep
them organized so you can easily incorporate them in your assignments and
dissertations.
Mendeley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6_HuCYExM
Zotero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwCL3qozuB4

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 Appendix A - Plan of Action
It is better to include a plan of actions as an appendix. This may be cited in the
section ‘Proposed Solution’. This is a list of activities together with intended
dates for their completion. In order to decide on the time scale, you must refer
to the project duration prescribed (About 08-10 months) by the Faculty. The list
of activities must be defined as per the objectives of the project. You can also use
a Gantt chart for more detailed project timetable. <This is just an example; it may vary
according to your schedule>

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Acknowledgement
This document was prepared based on the following sources;
1. http://www.lib.mrt.ac.lk/images/User%20Education_%20Guidelines_IEEE
.pdf
2. http://www.montana.edu/usp/apply/research-proposals.html
3. http://rgs.usu.edu/undergradresearch/proposals/
4. http://undergradresearch.northwestern.edu/proposal-writing

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