One of the most important sections in a TM470 project is your account of project work section.
This section might go by the factual title of ‘account of project work’, or just simply ‘project work’. What you include in this section should reflect your project plan and your high level summary of all the activities that you have determined you need to carry out.
How you organise your project work section will, of course, depend on the character and nature of your project. If you adopt an iterative approach, where you have used a series of sprints, you might want to have a series of subsections which relate to each of your iterations.
Before we get into looking at a potential structure of a project work section, it might be useful to return to what a project report might look like by reviewing a TM470 project report template.
The key point is this: in your account of project work section, you must show, rather than tell the examiner what you have done. It isn’t enough to say ‘I designed a prototype’, you need to show the creation of the prototype. You need to show the identification and evaluation of requirements, the creation of potential designs, or potential mockups. I’ll get onto saying a bit more about this later.
A potential substructure
What follows are some suggested headings. As mentioned, every project is going to be different. This means that you must adapt this guidance to suit your needs. You may need only some of these suggested headings.
Requirements
Begin by analysing or presenting your requirements. This is the start of your project. It sets out what you need to do, or need to build. More information about how to approach requirements can be found in the following two posts: TM470 Considering software requirements and TM470 Requirements revisited.
Sprint number ‘n’
Your project may contain any number of sprints, where you may aim to implement an element of your project (or, find out about something, or do something that relates to your project. The letter ‘n’ suggests that you may have a number of these sprint sections. Give your sprint a title. Make it easy for the examiner. Tell them what you are doing. You might even be creating a prototype within your sprint. It is up to you, but show them what you do.
Topic number ‘n’
Rather than presenting your account of project work section as a series of sprints, you might instead split your project work section into a number of related topics, or themes. This is an appropriate form if your project is a research project.
Evaluation
How do you know if your project is a success? Another way to phrase this question is to ask: does your project satisfy all the requirements you have specified in an earlier section. Evaluation might be something that you do as a part of an iterative cycle, or it might be a phase within your project. More guidance about how to think about evaluation can be found in TM470 Considering evaluation.
Presenting your work
Repeating the earlier phrase, it is important to show the examiner not what you have done, rather than just ‘saying’ you have done something. Your examiner will need to see evidence of your project work. They need to see your thinking. You should do this by providing a narrative description of everything that you have done.
There are two places to share your work: in this account of work section, and in any number of appendices. Think of this account of work section as a showcase, where you show off your best work, and the work that forms the heart of the project. If you have created a lot of designs, analysed a lot of research, or have written a lot of source code, put everything you have created in a series of appendices, and copy the best bits into the body of your project report, to the ‘project work’ section.
Consider:
- Taking photographs of your context, or the environment which your project relates to. This helps the examiner to understand more about your problem domain.
- Sharing any early sketches you might make. It is okay if they are really rough. A series of them will show progression.
- Showcasing problems that you found difficult to solve. Take screenshots of significant bits of code, or present your code in a different font. Accompany code with descriptions to explain what you are showing, and why.
- Sharing screenshots of early or later prototypes.
- Sharing screenshots of any complex configuration pages or files that you either struggled with, or are important to the completion of your project.
Some further resources
This post relates to a series of other posts that relate to your project report:
TM470 Considering planning
This post says something about what you need to do to plan, and what you should include in the planning section of your report. Do not skimp on planning. Also, return to planning throughout your project.
TM470 Considering LSEPI
Ultimate, computing is a subject that is connected to people and society. Your LSEPI section is important. It should ideally be situated before the literature review. Use it to consider the potential impact of your project. Do consider those unexpected consequences. It is also important to treat everyone as ethically as possible, as explored within TM470 Considering LSEPI (again). The issues and points that you identify within this section can be further explored within your literature review section.
TM470 Understanding the Literature review
The lit review section is about three main things: it is about showing what reading that you have done, showing what literature and resources you will later go on to use and apply, and it is about educating the examiner about the context of your project.
TM470 Considering prototyping
Prototyping is an important and powerful technique. In your account of project work section, you might show the creation of a number of different prototypes.
TM470 On Reflection
When you get to the end of your project, you need to say something about what you have learnt by completing your project. This post highlights the connection to the various learning outcomes that the module is assessing.
Reflections
The project work section of your project report accounts for 40% of the overall result of your EMA. This means it needs to be detailed and comprehensive. The biggest tip, of course, is: show, don’t tell. If you’re unsure as to whether to put something in, include it. You need to show lots of evidence of everything you have done.