Transcript Project intro - University of Huddersfield

UG Individual Project CHP2524
This week:
PART 1: TIME MANAGEMENT
(thanks to Dave Brignell for his slides)
PART 2: ADVICE ON CHOICE OF PROJECT
PART 1:TIME MANAGEMENT
Some famous laws:
SOD'S LAW,
ALSO KNOWN AS MURPHY'S LAW:
If anything can go wrong, it will.
O'TOOLE'S COMMENTARY ON MURPHY'S LAW:
Murphy was an optimist.
Some famous laws
NINETY-NINETY RULE OF PROJECT SCHEDULES.
The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time, the last 10%
takes the other 90%.
FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL.
Mountain to climb?
PLAN AHEAD.
BE SYSTEMATIC.
TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME.
Your project
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40 Credits
The biggest module you take at university (apart from the
placement)
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Needs more time to do it properly
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Largely up to you
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Easy to lose control of it
You need to
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Develop a strategy to cope with it
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Manage your time
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Plan effectively
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Monitor your progress
Plan A
120
100
80
60
Effort
40
20
0
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Plan B
120
100
80
60
Effort
40
20
0
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Managing your time
Main points
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Start early
Work consistently
Don’t let things drift
Balance your commitments
Make to do lists
PLAN as much as possible
PRIORITISE in your planning
Assess risks
The Salami method
Best eaten in thin
slices
Reduce task to small
chunks
Planning
FAIL TO PLAN – PLAN TO FAIL
Use a project management tool such as MS Project
Break down your project into manageable tasks, e.g.
Research – Requirements – Analysis – Design – Production
– Testing – Delivery - etc
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Planning
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Estimate how long each task should take
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Enter deadlines
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Ensure that your plans allow you to meet the deadlines
Allow some slack for contingencies
“Sod’s or Murphy’s Law”
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Use Gantt charts
Show graphically what tasks you should have done and
what is still to do
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Shows durations, dependencies, e.g.
Wake up
Go To Bathroom
Wash
Update regularly
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Save a baseline version
Modify your plan to show Re-scheduled tasks
 Additional tasks
 Deleted tasks
These versions show that you have been trying to manage
your project
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Stick to your plan
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Don’t exceed the planned times by large amounts
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Move on to the next phase
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There will always be a certain reluctance to end a task.
Realise you could spend double the time on it and only
improve it by 5%
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Scope your project
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Clearly identify what you really need to deliver
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Consider the product, what are the core deliverables
Look at the assessment strategy, what do you get the marks
for
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Concentrate your effort on these.
Use MOSCOW
This is a tool developed by the DSDM Consortium
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(Dynamic Systems Development Method )
M - MUST have this.
S - SHOULD have this if at all possible.
C - COULD have this if it does not effect anything
else.
W - WON'T have this time but would like in the
future.
It’s just as important to get the Won’ts right as the
Musts
Apply to your task lists
1.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ M
2.
~~~~~~~~ W
3.
~~~~~~~~~~~ S
4.
~~~~~~~~~ M
5.
~~~~ C
Use the module handbook to guide you in doing this
Set Goals
Long Term
Produce an application and a report
Medium Term
Produce a research report by week 8
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(IS students only)
Short term
Arrange meeting schedules
Define research areas
Try to make weekly schedules
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Don’t think that
you are the only one in this situation
you will fail if you don’t complete everything
you can’t make small changes
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(agree with your supervisor though)
you have plenty of time and you will be able to catch up
later
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When things go wrong
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DISCUSS with your supervisor know
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Work out a new strategy
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Review what you can do in the time left
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Re-prioritise
Summary
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PLAN
Use:
 MOSCOW priorities
 SALAMI method to split up work
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Update plans regularly
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Apply consistent effort
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Stay positive – it can be done!
More quotes …
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The bad news is time flies.
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The good news is you're the pilot.
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--Michael Althsuler
CHP2524
PART 2:
ADVICE ON CHOICE OF PROJECT
PROJECT PROPOSAL WRITING AND
EXAMPLES OF PAST PROJECTS
Your Project Idea – Questions to Ask
and Desirable Answers- the YES’s
10 QUESTION TO ASK ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL - THE NEARER
YOU GET TO 10/10 THE BETTER….
1. Is the project one that I am motivated to do and will enjoy doing?
YES
2. Have I identified a problem to be solved, or a research question to
be answered? YES
3. Is the problem “open ended”, does the problem’s solution involve
investigation and research, and then the construction of a tangible
product ? YES
4. Will doing the project make me an expert in some topical/advanced
area such an active research area, or enable me to learn about an
active research and development area? YES
5. Will the project enable me to be creative, innovative and use my
own initiative? YES
Your Project Idea – Questions to Ask
and Desirable Answers – the NO’s
6. Can the problem be solved with off-the-shelf system, or is it a
problem that has been solved many times before ? NO
7. Have I chosen the project mainly because I want to use a particular
technology – eg I want to learn about “web programming” so I want
to do a project using “web programming”? NO
8. Have I chosen the project mainly because my ex-industrial training
company wants me to do it as a development project? NO
9. Have I chosen a project which has no links to my degree? NO
10. Is the problem to be solved of same complexity as a piece of final
year coursework? NO
EXAMPLE OF A POOR WAY TO START A PROJECT
PROPOSAL… (someone doing MultiMedia and Software
Development)
“I want to do my project using C# v.3.2 in order to
create a MySQL database of honey bee qualities. I
will create a web solution to the honey bee
problem. Using Flash v1.4, which is the premier
solution to web media integration, I will do an
animation. I will highlight the honey bee population
downturn by using MySQL operations on the data. I
will research into the best version of Flash to use.”
EXAMPLE OF A BETTER WAY TO START A PROJECT
PROPOSAL… (someone doing MultiMedia and Software
Development)
“The population of honey bees in the UK is declining
[reference]. Scientists require help in visualising and
analysing this decline to emphasise regional and
geographical trends … [-CONTEXT, TOUCHING ON
PROBLEM]. No appropriate decision software exists to
help them in the honey bee area.
The aim of this project is to help environmental scientists in
their research into bee decline…. [-PROBLEM TO BE
SOLVED, NEED IDENTIFIED] To achieve this I intend to
acquire available bee statistical data, and produce a
computer tool to integrate, analyse and visualise the
data that will assist the environmental scientists in their
research… [that’s the PRODUCT]
My client is Dr Honey of the Dept of Biology.
Likely areas of research will be database integration and
multi-dimensional data visualisation.
EXAMPLES OF SOME PAST
PROJECTS
…
NB
you can “borrow” 1st and 2:1 project
reports from last year for a limited
period from the Informatics Office on
the 4th floor
“Phone a Friend” – M. Duckitt
[2008] BSc Computer Science
Problem: How to get answers to factual questions
Area: Software, Information Retrieval, Entertainment
Product: A Web Service that can find the correct answer to
a factual question
Research: Natural Language Processing, Information
Retrieval Methods such as Document Ranking
Evaluation: Checked accuracy using questions from a
WWTBAM book
Open Ended? Getting a computer system to answer
arbitrary questions has not been achieved yet.
First Person Shooter Games for the Blind – Z.Adeel
BSc Computing Software Devel.
Problem: there is a need for entertaining computer
games for the blind
Area: Games, Entertainment
Product: A FPS game that Blind people can use,
where interaction is done using sound and
keyboard only
Research: Sound, Current use of Sound in Games,
Games Engines
Evaluation: User trials and feedback
Open Ended? Clearly a novel area, and a high
degree of difficulty
Mobile Interactive Learning Materials [2008]
D. Hudson BSc Software Devel. + Multimedia
Problem: Platforms for E-Learning need to be
extended for Mobile Work
Area: E-Learning, mobile learning
Product: A “learning content editor” to create
learning content for mobiles
Research: E-Learning, Mobile Learning, Mobile
Technologies, Platforms and their capabilities
Evaluation: User trial by clients: 2 academics “learning managers” at HU
Open Ended? Clearly a novel area as there are no
common tools in use
Stocks and Shares Extraction
(Anon) BSc Computing and Business
Problem: Need an automated way of finding useful information
about stocks/shares etc of a company
Area: Business, Economics, Knowledge Extraction
Product: A web service that, given the name of a company,
will extract information about it from the web
Research: Automated Extraction of information from the Web,
Company features and characteristics
Evaluation: Test using business clients for usefulness again
doing manual searches
Open Ended? The amount and quality of information that can
be extracted from (largely) human–readable sources is
open-ended
CONCLUSIONS
Picking the right project for you is EXTREMELY important.
Good luck with your choice.