The following should act as a guide to all Advanced Diploma students who are doing Practical Project (PP).
PROJECT PROPOSAL
The following are the main topics:
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction to the student
1.2 Introduction to the client
1.3 Introduction to the system to be investigated/created. Here, you must give the name of the system and the purpose(s) it will serve the external client.
2.0 EXPLANATION OF PROJECT NECESSITY
2.1 Description of the current system
(You can give a context diagram or dataflow diagram of the current system, for example:
2.2 Problems of the current system
3.0 Initial Statement of of the Proposed System
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Preliminary Functional Specification for the Proposed System
3.2.1 Inputs (state what the inputs of the new system will be).
3.2.2 Outputs (state what the outputs of the new system will be).
3.2.3 Processes (state how the inputs will be processed to give outputs, e.g some certain calculations may have to be made, some records may have to be sorted etc).
3.2.4 Storage (state how data/information will be stored for future use).
4.0 Development Specification
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Evaluation of a Range of Information System Development Methods and Tools
4.2.1 Development Methods
4.2.1.1 Classical Life Cycle
4.2.1.1.1 Definition
4.2.1.1.2 Advantages
4.2.1.1.3 Disadvantages
4.2.1.2 Prototyping
4.2.1.2.1 Definition
4.2.1.2.2 Advantages
4.2.1.2.3 Disadvantages
4.2.1.3 Your recommended Solution
(State clearly that you will use Classical Life Cycle or Prototyping - some student leave it to the supervisor to infer the type of method used which is not good).
4.3 Development Tools
4.3.1 Introduction
4.3.2 Database
Investigate and generate a report about a range of databases you can use in your project. For each - give a brief description, its advantages, disadvantages - look at MS Access, Oracle, PL/SQL, MySQL, etc.
4.3.3 Programming Language
Investigate and generate a report about a range of programming languages you can use in your project. For each - give a brief description, its advantages, disadvantages - look at Visual Basic, Java, PHP, PL/SQL, MySQL, etc.
4.3.4 Recommend the database and programming language you will use and reasons for that. In some cases there might be no need for you to chose a database since some packages like MYSQL have in-build databases.
4.4 Resources Needed
Look at issues like time, money (for transport, communication and stationery), computers, Internet, etc.
4.5 Project Plan
Use MS Word, Excel or MS Project to compile a project plan indicating milestones and deliverabble dates. Each project should have a project plan and a Gantt chart. Samples below:
Your proposal should be 10 pages long (2,500 to 3,000 words).
The following documents should be appended at the back of the final project:
- Completed Client Appriasal Form.
- Questionnaire for Structured Face-To-Face Interviews or Posted Questionnaire.
- User Guide.
- Memorandum of Understanding
- Letter from IDM to xternal Client.
It is expected that the student will also consult the NCC website (http://www.nccedu.com/) for information regarding to issues like format of the final document, formatting, in-text citation and bibliography (Harvard) and plagiarism.
In the next section we shall focus on Analysis and Design Document/System Document - all the Best!!!
