Business IT Project

Topic 2: Conducting Research

© NCC Education Limited

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The Unit Roadmap

This lesson will focus on topic 2:

1. Project Introduction
2. Research
3. Methods of Solution
4. Testing and Evaluation
5. Planning the final report
6. Supervised project work
.
2
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Review questions on topic 1

1. What is meant by Risk?
2. What is the role of Likelihood and Impact in
prioritizing Risk?
3. Identify 1 technical & 1 personnel risk in
the following project:
A website is to be developed for a new client
using PHP. The developer has limited
experience of PHP. The client has a very clear
idea of what the Website should do.
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Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic, students will be
able to:
• Conduct an in-depth investigation of the context and
literature, and where appropriate, other similar
products,
 Plan and undertake research activities in an
appropriate and systematic way
 Explain the research methods used and their
limitations in terms of validity and reliability
 Evaluate research material
 Synthesise a course of action from the evaluation of
material
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Scope and Coverage

This topic will cover:
• What is Research?
– Research methods, purpose, validity, reliability, primary and
secondary research, Data collection and analysis
• What does research mean for the Business IT
Project?
– Exploring the problem: background
– Exploring methods of solution and alternatives
– Literature Review
– Documenting Research
• Where can I find appropriate information?
• Requirements gathering and Specification
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Key Points
• Research is a complex topic:
– Philosophy
– Theory
– Methodologies
– Data Collection & Analysis
– Sampling: Validity/reliability
• You need to be aware of some key points to apply to your
project
• What you need depends on your project.
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What is Research?
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What is Research?

• Write Down a list of

characteristics of Research
• What activities involved in
research?
• What is the purpose of
research?
• How does it differ from just
‘looking something up’?
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Characteristics of Research
Systematic Process
Clear Purpose -underpinned by
recognised methods/theory

Transparency of
Evidence base
Research Systematic interpretation
-Systematic Of data
data collection -Explanatory

Advances Knowledge
-something new
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Typical Academic Research Project structure

A. Critically review literature

B. Collect Data Put the

steps in
C. Draw Conclusions and produce report the right
D. Analysis of Data order

E. Formulate Research questions (what)

F. Devise Methodology & Research Instruments (How)

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Typical Academic Research Project structure

1. Formulate Research questions (what) The process of

research is well-
2. Critically review literature documented.

3. Devise Methodology & Research This diagram

Instruments (How) more or less
describes the
4. Collect Data activities for an
academic
5. Analysis of Data research project.

6. Draw conclusions and produce report

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Being Critical
Research must present a clear argument
supported by evidence.

You should always check

• The evidence is sufficient and supports the conclusion
• The method is rigorous (valid, reliable)
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Exercise: Being Critical

More than half of teachers believe internet plagiarism is a serious
problem among students, a teaching union survey suggests. The
58% of teachers who identified it as a problem said they thought 25%
of work returned by pupils included material copied from internet
sites. (BBC News, 2018)

1. What questions would you want answered

before you accept the findings?
2. What interpretation could there be?
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Some important concepts

Primary Research
• Original, first-hand; the author collected
the research data.
• Eg a survey or experiment you conduct.
Secondary Research
• The author uses data collected by
someone else, and they then report,
analyze or interpret that other person's
data.
• Eg literature review, document analysis.
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More important concepts

Validity
• How well your research
measures what it intends
to measure,

Reliability
• How consistent and stable
your research results are,
and how well they can be
replicated by other
researchers.
Reliable AND valid
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Data collection and analysis

What data to collect?
• To achieve validity and reliability
• Representative sample
• Quantitative / Qualitative?
How to collect and analyse?
• Surveys? Documents?
• Quantitative: Statistical analysis
• Qualitative: e.g. look for themes in data
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Research and the Business

IT Project
So what does
that mean for
me?
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So what Research Should I Do?

It depends on the type of project, e.g.:

– Software Development:
• Database; web site, software application.
– Design of a Network / Computer system
– Data Science
– Cybersecurity
– Research into use of IT in a business area
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So what Research Should I Do?

Your research will be about investigating and

reporting on some or all of the following:
– The problem area
– The company YOU are designing the system for
– The tool(s) YOU are going to use
– The techniques YOU are going to use
– Alternative methods of analysis and solution
– Other research into the same subject area
• Literature review for research project.
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What does ‘Reporting on’ Mean?

Reporting on can mean many things – E.g. for
the BIT project it could include:
– Providing an overview of the company YOU are
designing the system for
– Providing brief overviews of several tools, techniques
and methods
– Analysing & evaluating alternatives
– Using the aforementioned overviews to justify the use
of particular tool(s), technique(s) or method(s) in YOUR
project
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Good Quality Research

Whatever you are researching, you need
to ensure that your results are valid and
reliable, so consider:
• How much data do I need to be
reliable?
• Is it representative?
• How good is the data I have?
• Does it answer my questions (be critical)
• How do I analyse it objectively and
present results in a transparent way?
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Appropriate Information
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Where to Look
• Academic text books
Always question
• Academic papers the quality of the
information:
• Company Web sites
- Be critical
• Google Scholar - What evidence
is provided?
• Cite Seer
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Where Not to Look

• Wikipedia
• Any random web site that comes up in a search with
your general topic in it – tools, techniques, etc.
• Magazines

NB: Wikipedia is not a bad place to start!

BUT You need to follow up references and verify - since
anyone can post.
DO NOT CITE/Reference Wikipedia – go to original
reference.
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Hints and Tips

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Key Points
• Copying large chunks of someone else's work and providing
a reference will not score many marks
• Only put information in your report that is relevant. Do
not fill up pages with information that will not score many
marks
• Copying the work of others and not referencing it is
plagiarism. Do not do it – it will be found and you will fail
the project
• Do not use ChatGPT (or similar), it is malpractice and can
be detected.
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Report Not Facts

• Reports have a logical flow, building a reasoned argument.

• Say what you are going to say and then say it (signposting)

• Collections of facts do not score high marks

– Analyse, interpret and summarise
– Explain what it means

• Link one paragraph to another

• Summarise what it means / significance

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The Wrong thing to Do

“After reading through the different
documents on Agile development I have
come to understand that…”

Do not do this!
– Cite all sources
– Explain how the cited sources are
relevant to your project
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A better way

“Sommerville (2016) advises that an agile

development method is most suitable where
requirements are not fixed. Since my client
keeps changing his mind, an agile, incremental
approach will be used, consulting the client
frequently for feedback on suitability”
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Referencing Reminder
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Referencing and Bibliographies

• NCC Education have produced guidance on the Harvard
Style of referencing
• This can be found on Campus by clicking on the ‘Personal
Support’ menu and then clicking on the ‘Policies and Advice’
menu
– Referencing and Bibliographies
• Please read this document and make sure that you use the
Harvard Style of referencing in your project report
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Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism

• NCC Education have produced a policy on academic
dishonesty and plagiarism
• This can be found on Campus by clicking on the ‘Personal
Support’ menu and then clicking on the ‘Policies and Advice’
menu
– Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy
• Please read this document and make sure that you
understand what is meant by academic dishonesty and
plagiarism
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Quiz
Which of the following are correct?
1. Validity means that your results can be
replicated
2. Quantitative data is always objective and
accurate
3. Quantitative methods analyse numeric data
4. A literature review is usually a quantitative
method.
5. Any research you do should have a clear purpose
and well-defined question(s)
6. Your research is reliable if another researcher
can replicate the method and get the same /
equivalent results.
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Summary
Research is not just looking something up:
• It is systematic exploration of data for a purpose
where methods are designed to achieve valid and
reliable results.
Validity
• How well your research measures what it intends
to measure
Reliability
• How consistent and stable your research results
are, and how well they can be replicated by other
researchers.
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Summary
• The Research you do for your project
depends on the nature of the project
– This lecture has provided some examples

• You may well feel unsure as to what

research you will need to do:
– Look at your project proposal and
produce a list of possible things you
think would be important to research
– Discuss these with your supervisor to
finalise your plans.
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Requirements Elicitation
&
Specification
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A Requirements Specification is
needed for any
project involving development
eg:
Web site
Database
Software Application
Network design
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Exercise - review

1. What is Requirements
Elicitation?

2. What activities does it involve?

3. What outputs are produced?

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Requirements
• Functional Requirements
• i.e. What the system should do

• Non-functional requirements
• i.e. constraints such as performance, security,
standards

• May be categorised in many other ways, e.g.

user requirements, system requirements,
performance requirements, hardware and
software requirements.
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Exercise
Given an overall requirement for a library
system that records books/resources that users
borrow and allows catalogue searching.

1. Write down TWO

functional requirements

2. Write down TWO non-

functional requirements
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What do you need to know?

• Questions to answer e.g:
• What the system should do.
• Who uses it and how?
• Standards. Policies & procedures
• What data is recorded?
• Hardware required
• Software required
• Performance required
• Security required
• Interoperability
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How do you find out?

• Identifying the stakeholders (the organisation and its staff

and customers)
• Using interviews, focus groups, observations,
questionnaires to gather information from stakeholders
• Analysing documentation about the existing system(s).
• Research into commercial products that may do the job.
• Identifying the aims, functions, data and constraints
(technical, operational, economic, legal and ethical) of the
system
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Prioritizing requirements
MoSCoW
• Must haves :
• Without them, system unworkable/useless
• Should haves:
• Would be mandatory, but workaround exists;
• Could haves would add business benefit
• Won’t haves can be valuable but can wait until a
later increment.
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Your Project Report

Requirements are documented as part of your

report
• It presents the functional and non-functional requirements
of YOUR system and should contain:
– A list of functional requirements with supporting
non-functional requirements where appropriate
– A list of system-wide non-functional requirements
• The functional requirements should be prioritized using the
MoSCoW prioritization technique.
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Summary
• Requirements specification states what you will build
• Accurate knowledge of requirements is essential to
build a high quality system.
• Requirements are primarily discovered from the key
project stakeholders.
• The Requirement Specification captures a list of
detailed requirements.
– Functional
– Non-functional
• Prioritized – with explanation.
• Record the data needed by the system.
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Topic 2 – Conducting
Research
Any Questions?
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Next session
• We’ve discussed: what your project will do,

• Next consider how you achieve the aims /objectives:

Methods of solution

• Varies by project type,

• the session presents various methods;
• select what is appropriate with the help of your supervisor.
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References
• Bryman,A. & Bell, E. (2015) Business
Research Methods (4th Edition), Oxford,
OUP.
• Sommerville, I. (2016) Software
Engineering (10th Edition), Harlow,
Pearson.