Explanatory Notes – You should read these before filling in your proposal (Please do not hand these notes in with your form )

 

The project summary is an indication of your intent to carry out a project in a certain field of discipline for a Masters level module.

 

The project must be mindful of and demonstrate EACH of the following learning outcomes

 

1. Apply intellectual rigor to a topic area or subject that is of interest to the student and relevant to the programme of study undertaken at a Masters level.
2. Conceptualise and articulate a particular area of research or industry requirement in the body of a coherent, comprehensive and logically argued professional report.
3. Utilise and justify a range of research methods to identify, select and review a wide range of fully cited information sources to support the subject matter, both historical and current.
4. Identify and apply appropriate approaches, methodologies, tools and techniques that will support the progression of the subject matter and theme of a project.
5. Develop well structured solutions to an identifiable industry requirement or support a hypothesis / intellectual argument regarding an area of research.
6. Critically evaluate options and make justifiable recommendations for the subject matter.
7. Critically evaluate the approach and conduct of the project.
8. Demonstrate and conduct a project to good project management characteristics and Quality Assurance techniques.
9. Apply appropriate measures to address any legal and ethical issues relating to the project work.

 

The project must fall in the scope of YOUR programme of study i.e. if you are an engineering student then your subject matter must be related to the world of Engineering although comparisons can be made to other disciplines, similarly for KM students then subject matter must be related to the world of ICT in support to the discipline of choice.

 

This document can form the basis of allocation of staff to your project.  This summary document will then be further worked for detail through a Project Proposal document, which will be similar to the document prepared in the study skills module.

 

Notes on the document fields

 

General Subject Area (with Keywords)

A broad topic area that defines the area of project and keywords that could be used in a search facility

 

Topic areas for Engineering it could be : Contract management, Engineering management, Engineering strategy, Entrepreneur and innovation , Finance / Decision making and risk, HRM, ICT, Lean management or operations, Manufacturing (/ simulation), Marketing, Production management, Project Management, Quality management, Supply Chain Management, Telecoms/ ICT,  Vehicle Engineering design, material technology, environmentally sustainable, innovation, automation,  Technology etc

 

Topic areas for KM could be : Strategy, Logistics, Management, Business Intelligence, project management, Ecommerce, Mcommerce,  Quality, Networks, Software development, Health and IT etc.

 

Keywords could be any list of words that could be used in locating your project in a library database search facility.

 

Proposed Subject Title

A proposed title of the project, succinct and clear as to the project undertaken

 

Eg Feasibility of …, How Lean principles in Large scale companies can be applied to …, A case study of the barriers and triggers for Ghana to adopt WAP, etc

 

Brief Project scope and abstract

The background about the project, topic, company, situation and overall summary as to the nature of problem and what is required.

 

This would explain the aim of the project and put it into context /setting the scene.  If you have a client then this is mentioned with their relevance to the project.  This is really a mini-executive summary of the whole project, with considerations to the scope/ boundaries.

 

 

Project Objectives

List overall objectives of the project listing approx 7-10.  These should be measurable and will be used in part assessment in determining the level of achievement of the project.

 

These can be a breakdown of what you are trying to achieve and can be representative of activities/ phases that are to be conducted in arriving at the project deliverables.  Words such as acquire, identify, evaluate, conduct , develop, demonstrate, analyse etc could be used. These should reflect the Learning outcomes of the Module for example :

 

1. Research the principles / background / impact of chosen subject matter in terms of either engineering or ICT, regionally, nationally and or globally.
2. Conduct GAP/ PESTLE/ SWOT analysis and define some strategic positioning to provide context to the subject matter.
3. Identify appropriate case studies to analyse in respect of primary and secondary research for comparison and contrast; these can be regional, national and/or global case studies.

 

4. Evaluate triggers and barriers of subject matter in the context of the problem domain and given scenario.

 

5. Analyse and build a requirement specification / feasibility study or design using an appropriate and justified business, IT or Engineering lifecycle.

 

6. Instantiate the relevant business, IT or Engineering lifecycle within the context of the project

 

7. Determine and discuss possible options, scenarios and solutions

 

8. Draw conclusions and clear recommendations for the progress and approach for the future realisation of the solution with provision of a timeline

 

9. Make critical evaluation of the project and approach.

 

The objectives should be relevant and specific to your project, reflect the aims and the learning outcomes.  They should be realistic, though sufficiently challenging and measurable.

 

FEC MBA/ MSc Detail Project Proposal Form

 

Please type and fill in the following form and all fields.  Once completed and reviewed by supervisors then submit an electronic copy  to Coventry University (see details at the end of this form).   Thankyou.

 

Details

 

Uni Start Date
Surname (Family Name )		Forename(s) (Given Name)
Student ID no.		Course
Contact E-Mail		Mobile/Contact No.

 

 

First Supervisor

 

Project Details

 

General Subject Area

Keywords /Topic areas listed

(A broad topic area that defines the area of project and keywords that could be used in a search facility)

 

Project Title :

A proposed title of the project, succinct and clear as to the project undertaken.

 

Abstract/ Summary :

Please provide some background about the project, topic, company, situation and overall summary as to the nature of problem and what is required (approx 500 words)

 

 

Objectives

List overall objectives of the project.  These should be measurable and will be used in part assessment in determining the level of achievement of the project.  These should reflect the Learning outcomes of the Module.

 

(Can be a breakdown of what you are trying to achieve and can be representative of activities/ phases that are to be conducted in arriving at the project deliverables)

 

 

Project Outcomes :

Provide a list of key outcomes of the conducted project (can be deliverables/outputs  for each of the above objectives/ stages and  these can be studies, reports, requirements, plans, recommendations etc )

 

 

 

 

Why are you interested in the project ?

Provide a reason for your interest, what greater general interest it serves (In Industry or as part of Research) and who it could benefit (the target audience(s) that this project would be  beneficial to)

 

 

What are the key questions the project attempts to answer?

These should be testable in some way. These should be the key focal points that the project is trying to determine. (Challenging views, practises, models, behaviour, adoption etc on areas such as : the nature of ..,  impact of …, the practicality of.., a hypothesis of …, inferences questioned, assumptions deliberated and tested, questions of comparisons and contrasts .,etc-)

 

 

What research methods do you intend to use?

(Discuss the nature of investigation considering the multitude of academic and Industry methods, with thoughts on qualitative and quantitative methods, and primary and secondary methods)

 

 

 

What primary and/or secondary data sources do you intend to use?

(for each of the above identified methods discuss the pool of  sources of authentic and credible  information giving examples, e.g. consider target audiences such as profiles of general public, company representatives, people with specialist knowledge and in specific positions, type and title of  books, journals etc)

 

 

Please provide draft chapter headings for your report

 

Gantt chart

 

Attach or outline a project schedule (Gantt chart) which incorporates the phases of your project and activities to undertake, duration, start and end dates, any milestones/ deliverables and major dependencies.  This should preferably be in MS project (by exception: .xls, .doc, PowerPoint etc)

 

 

 

 

Date :

 

 

 

Return of form to Coventry University

Thank you for completing the form please ensure your supervisor has a copy and submit an electronic copy through Moodle (link provided).