Term Project (9)

Report Writing | Common mistakes to avoid

  • Objectivity
    • Understanding the main and relevant problem. Make a Mindmap.
    • Answer only the question asked and within context
    • Write paragraphs that are relevant in respect to the question asked. Be specific.
    • Keep the answer simple and void of unnecessary information
    • Limit the scope and go deeper- E.g. concentrate on a department and get enough detail compared to the entire organization (within the context).
  • Content/writing
    • Consider all the sections/topics as in the assignment. 
    • Use your own word- rewrite sentences you copied to avoid plagiarism. Do not include content you do not understand and/or cannot explain.
    • Consider local (Bangladeshi) examples rather than from books/online. 
    • Using fact based recommendation/decision/solution/statement. Validate  it with an experienced person (company guide, faculty ...)
    • o a sanity check before submitting answer- does this answer make sense? 
  • Organizing & formatting
    • Use MS Office- learn new techniques as necessary
    • Allocate time for formatting.
      • Use the spell checker
      • Limit the use of capital letters
      • Don't use red color and/or unnecessary highlights in your document
      • Don't use irrelevant layout elements/graphics
    • All diagrams need to be relevant and explained
    • Document has to maintain a natural/coherent flow

Organizational profiles are a rather broad concept. To make it manageable, you can use a template like the one attached.

How should I choose an organization for my Group Assignment (also term project)?

The organization you choose needs to be medium or large size with an approximate 50 or more people working.
Choosing an Organization.jpg

Report Writing & Formatting Guidelines

Writing- Use your own words and stay focused

A report is your voice on the topic. If you are copying from somebody else (e.g. to emphasize a point), reference them. Keep your report as short as possible without losing relevancy (important facts). Stay focused on answering the original question and do not digress. You are wasting valuable time of your audience by providing information that they already know or that are not relevant. Be brief and specific in your introductions. For example, you should not explain a known theory but explain its relevance using a sentence or two. If you are unsure or you want to keep the theory for reference, include it in the appendix.

Be specific and relevant with respect to the subject matter in consideration.

  • Do not include definitions in the main report (use appendix if you feel it is important)
  • Briefly explain all your quotes/referenced items. Also, limit your usage of quotes.
  • Use process maps, comparison tables, and graphs to illustrate your point.
  • Do attach irrelevant and/or large data in the appendix. For example, include the "Survey Questions" and large tables in the appendix- make a chart or a concise table to include that in the main report.

Formatting- Use a Word Processor and give it some time

  1. Cover Page- Create a visually appealing design using templates available in Microsoft Word.
  2. Paragraph formatting- Use the built-in styles of Microsoft Word. Choose a line-spacing no more than 1.2 and a font-size of 12. You can use a standard "report template" to accomplish this.
  3. Table of Content- Use Microsoft Word to auto-generate your table of content.
  4. Use bibliography Do credit all your sources (use bibliography). You reference your content in the appendix. Use Microsoft Word's referencing feature to manage source and auto-generate your bibliography. Search YouTube for more detail.

What should be on my slides? [Presentation]

Be professional in all aspect including dress-code, conduct, preparation, delivery.

  • Use keywords in your slides compared to using whole sentences
  • Use an agenda with the following sections
    • the issue (problem statement)
    • significance
    • analysis
    • solution and proofs that the solution will work. Consider effectiveness, savings, feasibility, implementation
    • conclude with future direction

Report Writing | General Grading Criterion (Rubric)

The following grading criterion applies if there is not a grading criterion explicitly set.

Grading Criterion

Professional preparation, appearance and conduct. 15%

Structure and organization of the report (clarity).

15%

Correct identification of the problem.

15%

Thoughtfulness, Correctness and Thoroughness of the analysis

15%

Fact based analysis- graphs, process maps, and comparison tables..

10%

Realistic decision considering implementation consideration..

20%
Fact based decision- graphs, process maps, and comparison tables. 10%
  100%

Plagiarism

  • Follow the plagiarism policy.
  • Report Writing | Components of a report

    Consider your group as an outside consultant team working for the organization. Your team is assigned this project by your reporting manager (a top level official). Your audience is the senior management of the company.

    Components of a report

    1. Title Page

    • Include assignment title, group name, member names and IDs, course information and dates.

    2. Executive summary

    The executive summary is designed to be read by people who will not have time to read the whole report or are deciding if this is necessary- you need to say as much as possible in the fewest words. The executive summary should briefly outline the subject matter, the background issue (problem statement), the scope of the investigation, the method(s) of analysis, the important findings arguments and important issues raised in the discussion, the conclusion and recommendations. To simplify, use this sequence to organize your content (1) Goals, (2) Problems (that you encountered during your study), (3) Results and (4) Recommendations. Consider revising the summary and eliminate the topics that are less relevant.

    • Maximum 200 words.

    3. Declaration of originality

    In this are you will need to declare that the project report written and submitted to the Adeyl Khan, North South University is your own content which has not been copied and.or reproduced elsewhere. You also need to acknowledge that such reproducing is liable for punishment in any way the university deem fit. The declaration statement needs to be signed by all the members of the group.

    • Please limit your "Declaration of originality" to a single page
    • Make sure all the group members sign it

    4. Company guide certification

    The point of conatct of the company you will work on will act as a guide. This is the person who will help you get relavant information from the organization. In this part your guide will certify that the project at the company was done under his/her guidance and it is an original project. This document needs to be signed by the group members as well as the guide. Make sure to include the contact information and the designation of the guide.

    • Please limit your "Company guide certification" to a single page

    5. Acknowledgement

    In this section you acknowledge the contributors who helped you complete the project by cooperation, guidance. Be specific regarding what is the contribution you want to acknowledge.

    • Please limit your acknowledgement to a single page

    6. Table of contents

    See the General Reporting Guidelines.

    7. Contents

    Content section of the report can have a maximum of 12 pages except full page diagram that you create. See the General Reporting Guidelines

    8. Bibliography

    See the General Reporting Guidelines.

    Group of organization versus an individual organization

    Group of organization has its own business processes, strategy and policies compared to individual organization. Often they are similar to their daughter organizations yet they needs to be distinguished during your term project.

    More often than not you will work with a particular department because of the scope of your project. And you will need to determine the parent of the department.

    Reference
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_group
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concern_(business)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parent_company

    The course strongly supports the use of free and open source software. Also the use of Google Docs is required in certain instances. Below as some of the recommended software that you can download

    How should I improve Group Member participation?

    Get a synergy :)

    1. Engage group members- do activities together. 
    2. Print out the required document.
    3. All members create mind-maps on the document. Meet to discuss the mindmap.
    4. Get a review of the map from peers- faculty and all.
    5. Review map and create your presentation from the map. Elaborate the presentation to create your report.

    Consider a Presentation

    A presentation will give you necessary feedback.

    Report Writing | Common mistakes to avoid

    • Objectivity
      • Understanding the main and relevant problem. Make a Mindmap.
      • Answer only the question asked and within context
      • Write paragraphs that are relevant in respect to the question asked. Be specific.
      • Keep the answer simple and void of unnecessary information
      • Limit the scope and go deeper- E.g. concentrate on a department and get enough detail compared to the entire organization (within the context).
    • Content/writing
      • Consider all the sections/topics as in the assignment. 
      • Use your own word- rewrite sentences you copied to avoid plagiarism. Do not include content you do not understand and/or cannot explain.
      • Consider local (Bangladeshi) examples rather than from books/online. 
      • Using fact based recommendation/decision/solution/statement. Validate  it with an experienced person (company guide, faculty ...)
      • o a sanity check before submitting answer- does this answer make sense? 
    • Organizing & formatting
      • Use MS Office- learn new techniques as necessary
      • Allocate time for formatting.
        • Use the spell checker
        • Limit the use of capital letters
        • Don't use red color and/or unnecessary highlights in your document
        • Don't use irrelevant layout elements/graphics
      • All diagrams need to be relevant and explained
      • Document has to maintain a natural/coherent flow

    How should I choose an organization for my Group Assignment (also term project)?

    The organization you choose needs to be medium or large size with an approximate 50 or more people working.
    Choosing an Organization.jpg

    Total Cost of Ownership

    ... (modified from Wikipedia)

    Total cost of ownership (TCO) considers most IT operational costs.
    Particularly, it includes the IT-related expenditures that go beyond the cost of
    purchasing infrastructure and applications. It includes costs like Integration
    to existing infrastructure, training on the new software, maintenance
    requirement, and similar. The major expense categories include

    Acquisition Expenses

    • Infrastructure purchases
    • Software acquisition
    • Installation and integration of hardware and software
    • Purchasing research
    • Warranties and licenses
    • License-acquisition compliance
    • Migration

    Operation Expenses

    • Infrastructure physical facilities
    • Electricity for physical facilities and infrastructure, cooling, and
      uniform power supply
    • Testing costs
    • Downtime, outage, and failure expenses
    • Security including breaches, loss of brand, and prevention and response
    • Risk management including upgrades, patches, and future licensing
      policies
    • License management
    • Business continuity
    • Training
    • Insurance
    • Information technology personnel
    • Software configuration management

    Compliance Expenses

    • Insurance
    • Information technology personnel
    • Software configuration management

    Long-Term Expenses

    • Replacement
    • Future upgrade or scalability expenses
    • Decommissioning

    Wikipedia Link:

    Total cost of ownership

    Term Project | Planning

    One of the critical success factors of your term project is the project plan. During the planning phase, you need to split up the project into manageable pieces which will be later assigned and monitored. Plan ahead- allocate times for different activities

    • Get assistance as needed. Request assistance n the initial stage.
    • Clearly define responsibilities and due dates.
    • Schedule time for combining various parts.

    The following section describes how you can do it.

    1 Understand project scope

    Prepare the project objective as you understand it by considering the requirement provided to you. The deliverables is often a report and a presentation incorporating the different details of the objective specified.

    1.1 Significance

    Explain why your project is important and how it adds value to you and the organization.

    1.2 Expected findings

    What do you expect to find after your project.

    1.3 Limitation

    What might be not accurate due to limitation like time, expertise, lack of data and similar.

    2 Plan project activities

    2.1 Work breakdown

    The tasks are broken down using a method called “Work Breakdown Structure” (WBS). It is a hierarchical structure where the deliverable are decomposed into smaller components. A well-designed WBS makes it easy to assign each project activity to one and only one terminal element of the WBS.

    You can use a brainstorming session after collecting the various requirements. Printing the various requirements and exhausting them in a brainstorming session is a good start. You can use a software like XMind to help you collect various ideas. Additionally the software allows you to organize your ideas.

    2.2 Project schedule

    From the work breakdown structure you can create an activity schedule. This is often done using a tool called “Gantt Chart”. You can easily create a Gantt Chart using a software like Microsoft Project.

    3 Risk management

    Risk management is an important part for the success of your project. Although often overlooked, it is important to identify as many risks to your project as possible, and be prepared if something bad happens.

    Common scenarios could be members not communicating, dependent tasks not getting completed, clashing meeting time and the similar. Here you search for such problems and determine a course of action if such an incident does occur.

    4 Communication and progress monitoring

    You need to have a clear communication plan. Consider using a Facebook Group and keep your recent documents uploaded. Also maintain a document with all the group members email addresses, and phone numbers. Do call if it is urgent. Consider syncing your lunches and coffee breaks.

    • Take advantage of internet. Brainstorm for ideas in an online meeting/Facebook
    • Use Facebook group page, a project management tool or similar tools to organize your activities.
    • Monitor document progress online.

    5 Project budget

    Budget for financial, time and other resources required.

    How to solve a problem? What tools can I use to make a decision?

    The basic problem solving techniques include

    Understanding the problem

    The problem needs to be understood well by engaging in group discussion. Get help from the instructor and the Teaching Assistants/Outstanding Students as you need them.

    Critical analysis

    There are often more than one way to solve a problem. The group assignment must show combined thinking and high level of analysis. Therefore, even when you split up the tasks among the group members, the report needs to be coherent.

    The scope needs to be well defined within the context of the course and assignment duration. The solution criterion needs to be defined before delving into analyzing/developing criterion.

    Decision Making

    There are often conflicting arguments for a particular solution. Therefore your analysis and solution often needs evidences to persuade the audience. This could be done using tools like Brainstorming, Trend Charts, Five Why’s, Story Boards, Scatter Diagrams, Surveys, Check Sheets, Histograms, Fail-Safing, Pareto diagrams, Fishbone Diagrams, and Flowcharts.

    Use a Methodology

    The solution you recommend needs to be in the context of real world situation. Cycle through problem solving steps as necessary to ensure a high quality output.
    There are various methods for problem solving. Though all the methods are similar, some might be advantages for a particular scenario compared to others.
    Review the PDCA or the Grow Model methodology and other ones as appropriate.

    What tools can I use to make decision?

    You can use different models. One interesting model you can use is the "Six Thinking Hats" (ref: http://www.toolshero.com/decision-making/six-thinking-hats-de-bono/)

    For complex decisions that allows for quantitative evaliations you can use the "Decision Tree Analysis" method (ref: http://www.toolshero.com/decision-making/decision-tree-analysis/).

    Report Writing & Formatting Guidelines

    Writing- Use your own words and stay focused

    A report is your voice on the topic. If you are copying from somebody else (e.g. to emphasize a point), reference them. Keep your report as short as possible without losing relevancy (important facts). Stay focused on answering the original question and do not digress. You are wasting valuable time of your audience by providing information that they already know or that are not relevant. Be brief and specific in your introductions. For example, you should not explain a known theory but explain its relevance using a sentence or two. If you are unsure or you want to keep the theory for reference, include it in the appendix.

    Be specific and relevant with respect to the subject matter in consideration.

    • Do not include definitions in the main report (use appendix if you feel it is important)
    • Briefly explain all your quotes/referenced items. Also, limit your usage of quotes.
    • Use process maps, comparison tables, and graphs to illustrate your point.
    • Do attach irrelevant and/or large data in the appendix. For example, include the "Survey Questions" and large tables in the appendix- make a chart or a concise table to include that in the main report.

    Formatting- Use a Word Processor and give it some time

    1. Cover Page- Create a visually appealing design using templates available in Microsoft Word.
    2. Paragraph formatting- Use the built-in styles of Microsoft Word. Choose a line-spacing no more than 1.2 and a font-size of 12. You can use a standard "report template" to accomplish this.
    3. Table of Content- Use Microsoft Word to auto-generate your table of content.
    4. Use bibliography Do credit all your sources (use bibliography). You reference your content in the appendix. Use Microsoft Word's referencing feature to manage source and auto-generate your bibliography. Search YouTube for more detail.

    How do I/we analyze a case?

    Solving cases simulates you applying your knowledge into a real-world situation. Like any real situation, there are infinite possibilities. Therefore, your goal is to find a solution that you can defend best with reasoning.

    Preparation for the case

    You need to have a good understanding of all the different topics discussed in the case. Often a case will introduce you to new topics (vocabularies, jargons). Develop a good understanding of these topics before you start analyzing the case.  The case will accompany question(s) that you need to solve.

    • Read the case multiple times- until you understand it.
    • Understand the breadth (topics covered) and a depth (detail) in general and how it is applied in the case (in context).
    • Use mindmapping techniques if you are unsure.
    • Do outside research- use the textbook(s) and the internet. Note your references as you research for bibliography.

    Analysis

    In the report, you will analyze the case and provide an educated direction/solution. You can use the Grow Model for problem solving (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GROW_model) among other models available. Consider the topics available in the book during your analysis.

    You need to be creative to find various solutions and critically analyze them.

    Recommendation

    There are often conflicting arguments for a particular solution. Therefore, you need to backup your solution with reasoning/evidence. Consider using tools like Brainstorming, Trend Charts, Five Why’s, Story Boards, Scatter Diagrams,
    Surveys, Check Sheets, Histograms, Fail-Safing, Pareto diagrams, Fishbone Diagrams, and Flowcharts  CITATION Wik14 \l 1033 (Wikipedia).

    Reports/Presentation

    Use the report format available in the website. Presentation will be based on your report. Make your presentation such that you will encourage an active and effective participation from the class.

    Grading Rubric

    You will earn a grade based on the quality of your oral presentation and the quality of your case write-up. Here is a sample grading criterion that you need to keep in mind to ensure a good grade.

     

    Criterion Percent
    Understanding the situational context. 30%
    Analyzing Depth and breadth 30%
    Solution 20%
    Professionalism (Report, Presentation and Participation) 20%

    Bibliography

    Wikipedia. Eight Disciplines Problem Solving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 24 July 2014. 11 September 2014
    .

    Report Writing | General Grading Criterion (Rubric)

    The following grading criterion applies if there is not a grading criterion explicitly set.

    Grading Criterion

    Professional preparation, appearance and conduct. 15%

    Structure and organization of the report (clarity).

    15%

    Correct identification of the problem.

    15%

    Thoughtfulness, Correctness and Thoroughness of the analysis

    15%

    Fact based analysis- graphs, process maps, and comparison tables..

    10%

    Realistic decision considering implementation consideration..

    20%
    Fact based decision- graphs, process maps, and comparison tables. 10%
      100%

    Plagiarism

  • Follow the plagiarism policy.
  • How can I request to extend an assignment?

    Before you request an extension
    * Please specify the activities you have completed
    * How long it will take for you to do the rest of the activities
    * How will the extension benefit you
    * Why do you think you deserve the extension

    You can request extending a "group assignment" when the group is present (e.g. in class).

    What do I do with the assignments without a due date?

    These are often future assignments posted online so that you can prepare yourself in advance. They will not be due until there is a due date assigned to them.

    Presenting/conducting a "Group Assignment" [Presentation]

    Time & Duration

    • The time is scheduled and posted in course website
    • Presentation duration is 15 minutes followed by a 5 minutes Q/A session. This will test your understanding of the assignment.

    Grading

    • Grading is done using a rubric. Click here to download the rubric.
    • Assignment grades are assigned for the entire group- - i.e. everybody in the group gets the same grade.
    • Presentation grades and/or bonus is for the students who presents 

    Delivery

    • Please understand the topic and rehearse the presentation such that your understanding radiates.
    • Be professional in your appearance and your attitude.

    Checklist

    • Printed report (if there is a report) or slide
    • Printed rubric
    • Appear 5 minutes before the scheduled time