信息管理专业毕业dissertation开题报告模版 Proposal Gui

Proposal Guidance Note for SBIT Proposals

Q1a/b Presenting Problem---------------------------------------------------------------1
Q2a/b Causes and Outcomes and Strategic IT Deployment--------------3
Q3a/b Research Approach ---------------------------------------------------------------7
Q4a/b Aim and Objectives ---------------------------------------------------------------13
Q5a/b Project Resources -----------------------------------------------------------------14
Q6a/b Evaluation-----------------------------------------------------------------------------15
Q7 research Question ---------------------------------------------------------------------20
Q8: Pre and Post Processing the Primary Data----------------------------------22
Q9: literature review ----------------------------------------------------------------------24
Q10: Project Plan-----------------------------------------------------------------------------28 

Introduction
There is nothing specific in the template that deals with scope and scale but they are meant to be considered carefully otherwise a project may become out of control and beyond ones capabilities in the time available. Alternatively, the scope and scale may be set so that the problem becomes trivial. So please take note of what these terms mean as far as this course is concerned.
Scope (selection) – this means something like selection or choice. For example, if I were looking at training in desk-top packages I might select just Excel or I might select Excel and Access and to focus on. The point is I set my scope by being selective.
Scale (extent) – this means something like number or extent. So for example if I set my scope as looking at Excel then I need to set the number of users I will include in my study. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Assessors must use the answer to question 1a to guide them on scope and scale but also be guided by what a student says in the personal profile about their job and expertise as these are often a good indication of what a student can or cannot do. Overall, this is of serious concern as far too often we get problems suggested that are beyond a single students capabilities or trivial (although this end of the spectrum is much rarer).
It is unfortunately true that the worst offenders in getting the scale and scope wrong are students who are unemployed or not IT professionals; suggesting project ideas that have an impossibly large scale or scope borne one supposes out a serious lack of any awareness of the paucity of their own knowledge and experience. Here are some recent examples:
To implement eBanking in Barclays and create a fool-proof security system to support it.
To carry out a feasibility study for mobile banking in a Malaysian Bank with International links but the student was resident in Leeds. #p#分页标题#e#
It is possible to have a dissertation style project where the expectation is that a student will discuss a topic of current interest by examining the latest research and journals. However, we have never seen a suitable application and most of the students on SBIT will not have easy access to such materials. With this in mind, be aware that the majority of students will have only dealt with assignments that require them to write about something and only rarely will they have been exposed to problem solving academic work. It follows, that many will suggest a project idea that amounts to just writing about topic X and so there is no primary data research involved so the idea is unsuitable. These are usually easy to spot and are more often than not on routine topics such as security, hacking, project management that kind of thing.

Answer Structure
A good answer to Q1a has the following four features as they all support a clear presenting problem however; the problem statement and short explanation are the real focus here.

(1) Problem Setting
Meaning the location where the presenting problem resides, normally a company site (e.g. Barclays Bank, West London) but many students are unemployed so often it is society based (e.g. Women in Closed communities). A good answer tells us where the primary data comes from so for a company setting it would be: the company name, location, area of business activity and for a society based setting a short description of the area will suffice.
Common Errors – using up all the available word count, indicative of not wanting to get to the core work in this question, secondly, muddling setting and topic area, thirdly, putting in irrelevant detail, fourthly, including the problem in the setting and lastly saying the setting is the technology itself.

(2) Topic Area for literature review
Many students have trouble making the simple distinction between the problem setting, what they will do and the topic area for the Literature Review and end up assuming absurdly that all these are one and the same thing. But it should be obvious to almost anyone that it is necessary to become expert in the topic area and that can only be done by a thorough study of the literature. Topic areas for the literature review where you visit libraries are things like: Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Network Infrastructure, MIS, system security, project management, software metrics, integrated systems (ERP etc), databases architectures, accounting/billing systems, IT supported automation in manufacturing, help-desk technology, emotional intelligence, tele-working, VLEs, inventory management, supply chain management, mobile computing, IT integration, the credit card industry, banking, RFID, eBusiness, the Internet, secure payment systems, Outsourcing, Video streaming, Server virtualization, VoIP, Tourism, telemedicine, eGovernment, search engines, IT standards, ethics, Operating Systems, PC applications, Instant messaging, online libraries, Risk, Blogging, Browser Technology etc. #p#分页标题#e#
The topic area is almost always twofold plus the setting; firstly about the technology and then the broad application area. For example, I research RFID (the technology) related to inventory management (application area) in Company ABC (setting), I look at eCommerce (technology) and Real Estate (application area) in ABC Property Agents (setting). Both areas must be mentioned but the application area may be implicit in the setting but make sure IT learning is going on somewhere as often that is entirely missing.
Caution – the broad application area is NOT the same as the setting. If students do not make this distinction then they will often fill up the Literature Review with details of the setting and that CANNOT be regarded as a suitable preparation for study of the setting. However, you need also to be aware that occasionally the ICT area and application are practically the same and one common example is software development or technical support. Typical broad applications areas are things like:
medical applications, real estate, software development, inventory management, sales and marketing, customer relations, retailing, manufacturing, tourism, government, entertainment, education and training, NGOs and so on.
It might help you if you think about the topic and application areas being all about the literature, visiting the library if you like where you will go to do your learning and become expert and knowledgeable and so you must not confuse that with the problem setting where you employ or use what you have learned and hence put your expertise and knowledge into practice
So before you start work on your project you must research in libraries the relevant subject and the application areas, for example, RFID (subject or topic area) and inventory management (applications area). Once you have done that you are ready to start the project research itself which for example might be about spares management at HP Hong Kong or copy machine deliveries for Xerox in the UAE. So there are TWO bouts of research: Preparation done in libraries and Research in the setting itself to collect primary data.
Common Errors – a large number of students have no concept of a literature review and so often take it to be the same as the problem setting or interpret it as asking for a description of what they will do.
 

(3) Presenting Problem
For SBIT a problem is defined as a matter of concern or debate amongst situation actors; it follows a problem is an object not an activity. The problem itself need not be IT but its resolution MUST in some way involve the strategic deployment of IT resources. The student must argue from evidence that a problem exists but it is best to end the argument with a short and lucid statement problem statement such as:
...inventory discrepancies leading to additional costs and delivery delays.
...delays and errors in generating audit request data Dissertation is provide by #p#分页标题#e#Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

...customer complaints about delays in resolving problem via the help desk
...bottlenecks in the repayment system causing customer complaints and miss-payments
...lack of trust in security checking activities Common Errors – repeating the setting again, saying the problem is the name of the topic area, saying the problem is the same as the solution, saying the problem is finding out how to do something, offering a problem that cannot lead to deployment of Strategic Business IT, there is no IT learning involved, saying the problem is how to make a decision and finally saying the problem is that something is missing.
(4) Target Target appears in many places in a project so it is import to be consistent, saying different things in different places as that would imply a confused and careless mind. Target is the effect or effects you want implying that changes have taken place that result from the use of your outcome. A problem is observable by things such as poor productivity, low morale or management indecision. It follows that if we solve/partially solve the presenting problem using then if we use your outcome we will also see observable effects such as high productivity, improved morale or new business opportunities.
As an analogy, consider what you might do, if you were unable to get a better paid job, (problem) then you might decide to get some qualifications to enhance your CV (outcome). Notice, the enhanced CV is NOT the end effect, but once we have the enhanced CV you can use it to get a better paid job (target).
In an MSc project there is usually no time to demonstrate that the target effects are achieved because obviously that comes after you have completed the project to generate the outcome that will, when used by an actor, lead to those change effects. BUT we do expect you to say what the target effect may be.
Common Errors -Here is a list of the most common errors. Be aware that target is a basic element and if it is muddled then assessors must consider if the student is ready to study at the project level.
Saying that target is what you have to do – when this happens there is no understanding of target at all and assessors must regard the work as seriously deficient.
Saying that target is 1001 different things -it is all too common to see students saying that their outcome will generate targets effects in every part of the company and at every level; this is just thoughtless rambling.
Saying that target is what some future system will do -it is feasible to say that your outcome will be used to create a system that will have a certain function. But the function of that new system is NOT the target. The target is the effects generated when the new system goes into operation. 
 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis#p#分页标题#e# http://www.ukthesis.org/
Causes -Speculation or Hypothesising
This section allows students to discuss the evidence for the problem situation (how do they know they have a problem) and hence discuss probable causes. It is usual to fix on a probable cause and then that is used to form a kind of loose hypotheses about must be done to resolve it. However, students often find this daunting because more often than not they are fixated on a solution long before they have seriously explored the problem and going backwards from that to a more detailed exploration is a source of severe frustration so answers are often very inadequate because they thoughtless.
MSc project Outcome Every MSc project has a single outcome. On this course we expect the outcome to be some kind of document. Students are often confused here and will want to talk about their results or their conclusions but rarely have any real understanding of any of these terms and use them because they sounds right. It is therefore important that they become aware that the end of a project has four elements and hence understand the place of what we call the outcome. Briefly, the four elements are written in the following order: results, outcome, evaluation and conclusions though here for convenience I present the outcome last.
Results – taken to mean the primary data as collected has been processed and those results are presented as tables, charts, statistics, and so on. It is important that this is seen as a preliminary step to getting the project outcome and in general this step is easy and routine with no great intellectual effort is involved.
Evaluation – this occurs after one generates the outcome and is project specific with two aspects: testing (a paper exercise) the outcome before it is used and of course before the project document is finalised and reviewing research practice for lessons learned.
Conclusions – implies that you take the results and corresponding outcome and make generalizations. One might look for originality, implications, insights, new or modified principles, limitations, new or modified theorisations, indications of best practice, lessons learned, indications of a need for further work, implication for law or standards, warnings or cautions, advice, caveats, values, ethics, factors or features including cultural ones, usage and user psychology and other things that might occur to you.
Outcome – once the primary data has been processed into some usable form (the results) the next step is to generate an outcome based on the processed data and that manifests itself as a document. Here is a list of possibilities that are or can be documents although not all of them are likely to be suitable in a Technology project but I have shown in bold ones that might be.
An Account of, Appendix, Argument, Article, Best Practice Description, Business Case, Calendar, Cartoon, Catalogue, Chart, Checklist, Collation, Colophon, Concordance, Confession, Critical Apparatus, Diagram, Dictionaries, Dossier, Emendations, Essay, Framework, Grammar, Guidelines, History, Index, Instructions, Justification, Lectionary, Lexicon, List, Map, Matrix/Table, Menu, Method, Methodology, Model, Orders, Pamphlet, Plan, Policy, Position paper, Preface, Principles, Procedure description, Process Description, Profile, Prospectus, Protocol, Recension, Recommendations, Report, Research Paper, Review, Schedule, Set of Rules, Strategy, Template, Testimony and Theory #p#分页标题#e#
Whatever outcome form has been chosen it will be placed in the project document as a chapter or part of a chapter. The important thing is that all these possible outcomes can be used in some way to bring about change directly or indirectly and the effects of those changes are collectively known as the target. So an outcome might be a series of actions as one might find in a process description or it may imply a series of actions such as might be found if the outcome where policy. Thus: Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

The outcome of a business case for the use of server virtualization can be used by managers to make a decision. That is the business case itself does not contain any actions but it allows other actions to occur because of its content and hence eventually bring about change based on IT deployment.
The outcome of a fault finding diagram can be used by IT support staff to solve a user problem. That is the diagram might be in the form of a fault finding schema so of itself it has no instructions but it allows others to take action because of its content and hence eventually bring about change. I this case the implication is that we have an improvement in a strategic deployment of IT (the help desk)
The outcome of set of network security guidelines can be used by IT managers in a similar way to a set of instructions. That is the guidelines are definitions of actions and hence following them will eventually bring about change and in this case the strategic deployment is expressed in a more secure network.
Some final points that need to be considered with regard to stating the outcome clearly
Caution -It is vital that students do NOT confuse their MSc outcome (the means to bring about change) with the target (the expected change effects). For example, one might have a server virtualization plan (outcome) to get increased sever utilization (target effect). If a student is not able to make this kind of simple distinction then one must seriously consider if they are in anyway ready for work at this level.
Outcome Structure -students must know what their suggested outcome is. Although not shown here each outcome form will have a description, structure, method of construction and purpose or usage mode. The point is that if a student says his outcome is a ”Position Paper“ then we will expect him know exactly what that is as a description, a structure, how to construct it and how it is normally used.
Qualification -Finally in every case where an outcome is stated it must be qualified. So if an outcome is a ”model“ then one must say what it is a model of (e.g. a secure network model), if an outcome is a ”review“ then one must say what is being reviewed (e.g. review of virtualization practices) and so on.
 

Actor
It is always useful to think about who will read ones project outcome and that helps ensure it is written to an appropriate level and in a suitable style. Every outcome will have an actor or actors, meaning that the actor will use the outcome to bring about change and achieve a particular result or effect (the target). It is essential that the outcome and actor match each other in the sense that the actor can credibly use the outcome. #p#分页标题#e#
Be careful here when I say actor I don’t mean you name a person such as ”Joe Brown’, you instead name a position or role so you say ”IT Mangers“, ”Class Tutor“, ”Quality Assurance Manger“ and so on. All the above is gathered together in a sentence that explains what the outcome is, who the actors is/are and how they will use the outcome to get target effects. eg
The outcome will be a report with recommendations (outcome) on the effectiveness of current audit processes (qualification). This report will then be used by finance managers (actors) to make an informed decision on the way audit requests for system data are handled in the future and in so doing bring about change in terms of the target of reducing the time taken to generate the requested data and at the same time improve its accuracy.
Common Errors in Student work – unfortunately there are host of errors and they point to poor thinking skills and lack of basic knowledge. The outcome/actor linking implying actions to bring about change is of particular importance as it shows with clarity whether the problem and how it might be resolved has been thought through. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Confusing the Outcome with the Target -This means a student does not understand that to get any sort of target effect you need to use something. So for example, if you say my outcome is ”increased productivity“ then tacitly you are saying this will occur all on its own; but a thinking person will say that to get ”increased productivity“ you need, for example, the outcome of ”a new training model“.
Confusing the actor with a place -Actors are people so saying that your ”Position Paper“ will be used by ”The Malaysian Gas Corporation“ is absurd. The Malaysian Gas Corporation cannot use anything but a person or persons in the company can. It is also clear in this example that a large corporation will have 1,000s of employees so just stating that it will be used by the corporation is so vague as to be worthless.
Outcome and Actor Don’t Match -The outcome must be able to be used by the actor. However, many students thoughtlessly just seem to write anything down and so we end up with absurdities such as a server virtualization plan will be used by the sales manager.
Stating an Impossible Actor – this usually shows itself when a student suggests the actor is the Managing Director of the Russian Gas Corporation that sort of thing or perhaps suggesting that the actors are ALL small business owners in Hong Kong
Not stating an Outcome qualification -for example stating ”my outcome will be a position paper“ has zero value because readers have no idea what the paper is about. Therefore, one must say something like ”I will produce a position paper on the use and properties of Digital Paper for consideration by IT managers who may then decide there is some potential in this technology area and hence define a full scale feasibility study...“ #p#分页标题#e#
This needs care as we often see things that look as if they are right but are in fact wrong. For example, we commonly see an outcome as ”An IT strategy“ but although it is qualified by saying ”IT“ it is still practically worthless because we then have to ask: ”is it an IT strategy for technology procurement“, ”is a strategy for IT deployment“, ”is it a strategy for IT support“ and so on.
No appropriate outcome – unfortunately often no outcome is mentioned or one that is inappropriate implying no awareness that there has to be an agent of change.
Stating the actor as everyone -Often there is a reasonable outcome but then it is ruined by stating the actors are: mangers, support staff, sales staff, engineers etc – that is everyone. This is most often a hopeless strategy as it is rarely the case that a given outcome can be used by everyone. For example, suppose we have an outcome of a security policy on the uses of backup software on lap tops. Now it is tempting to say the actors are everyone with a laptop but that would be a mistake as you would have no authority to tell anyone to use the policy and so the correct assignment of actors is something like ”IT management“ because they will endorse, implement and ensure the use of the policy.
 

Strategic Business IT
Every SBIT project must have an outcome that when used by an actor brings about change in the problem setting by means of a strategic deployment of IT assets. One needs to be careful not to interpreted this too narrowly so it may be expressed in many ways with regard to a decision to deploy IT assets: a new use, a better use, a different use, a more secure use, improved performance, improved utilization, improved support, system acceptance, improved efficiency, cost allocation of system resources, improved system stability, improved resilience, reduction in risk, improved return on investment, better alignment with business needs, expected business gains, improved take up, improved quality etc.
Strategic decisions are thought of in four areas: values, issues, strengths and aims and the changes brought about by the sorts of IT deployment mentioned above should fall into one or more of these categories and imply a decision with a relatively long time scale. In simple terms suppose there is an ‘issue’; then a company has to decide whether to deal with it or not. That issue might be regarded as strategic if it requires expenditure and its resolution has a long term benefit. It is also possible to regard something as strategic if its resolution is systemically desirable; meaning that its resolution benefits ‘spill’ over into several aspects of company business.
Common Errors – there is only one serious error here and that is to miss the point that what we are looking for is the deployment of IT resources BASED on what MSc project outcome is involved. For example, students will often say such things as the company ERP system is strategic deployment because their study is related to that. But to do that is to miss the point that we are looking to see what strategic IT deployment implication there is for their particular MSc project outcome as it relates to their presenting problem within the ERP system. #p#分页标题#e#
Examples -these are actual student examples where attempts at getting the strategic IT elements correct. If one does not get it correct then the while project will fail no matter what else is written.
Example 1Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Setting: Despite all the technologies, a survey conducted by The Royal Blind Society (RBS) of NSW in 1966 found that,
out of 116 legally blind persons, only 16% used a computer at home.

Presenting Problem: Lack of awareness of IT to the blind people
Strategic IT Deployment: Assist individuals in developing a positive attitude about blindness by providing opportunities to access wide variety of materials.
Tutor Review – this is a social setting but one might be sceptical as the statistics quoted look absurdly small. The topic area is not all that clear but it’s obviously in the usability area with a focus on the disadvantaged. I would accept this presenting problem if there were some supporting evidence and we might consider that is provided by what they said under setting. However, the target suggested of developing a ”positive attitude“ cannot be seen as leading to or implying a decision on the use of strategic IT in its resolution. One might consider it from the other end by focusing on what companies do to provide for the blind; in that sense they are deploying IT and then you might also include your idea. But as it stands it is NOT acceptable
 

Example 2
The presenting problem is set in my company Hong Kong Automation where we offer POS systems, services and support to the retail industry with a client base of around 75 companies at present. For some time now the company have been expanding and part of this has been to operate through service agents who use our help desk system and it is therefore strategically important that these IT systems are able to fully support and monitor these agents, however, it is suspected that this has generated customer difficulties, complaints as well as in one or two cases being very costly to resolve.
In view of this, HKA management would like a review of service agent provision and based on discussion with the ABC service managers it is agree that the presenting problem be defined as management concerns over the trustworthiness, competence and regulation of service agents for our POS products. It is though that this might be solved by creating a new set of agent guidelines and outline required practices and these will be enforced by the service agent mangers.
Tutor Review -setting is ABC in Hong Kong, topic area is POS and its support and the problem is about management concerns over monitoring agents and it is strategic business IT because it operates through an ABC host help desk system (if you like you can say the help desk system was a strategic company choice). The outcome and actors are both clear. #p#分页标题#e#
Example 3 Problem Causes: Before the service expansion exercise in 2005 and up to the present, Keat Huat Auto Repair has relied on a manual CRM system to fulfil its needs in identifying the service needs of its private and commercial vehicle customers. However, the expansion exercise brought about an increase in the number of customers from an average of 60 vehicles per month (in 2005) to the present average of 90 vehicles per month as well as an increasing number of types of customers with varying service needs such as duration of service completion, service quality and extended duration for payment (in months). All of these factors have made it increasingly difficult to use the manual CRM system for identifying and managing its customer service needs to create specialized service packages.
Outcome: In view of the problem, a feasibility report for use by management will be created to better understand the current state of the problem, explore possible alternative solutions and assess their feasibilities thus leading to a recommendation of action to be taken to help the management make an informed decision on investing in a possible eCRM system that best meets their needs. 
 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

Primary Data
When thinking about primary data needs keep in mind what your outcome is because that primary data is what you will uses as the basis for generating your project outcome using your plan for combining them. It follows that if you say your outcome is a strategy, or a model, or a position paper then it only make sense if you know what primary data you want (the ingredients) and a way to combine them (called pre and post processing) so that you can manufacture those particular outcomes.
It may seem obvious but what is often for gotten is that it is helpful to think about the way you will process that data when you define it else you might find that your chosen processing method will not work. For example, if your outcome were a policy than I might use the PLOT model to process my data. However, this implies you have collected data relevant to each of the PLOT elements, if you have not then the processing cannot be completed. As an analogy, if you intended to send a letter to someone but you only collected their name and house number then when you try to do you will fail.
 

An Analogy (don’t take this too far it’s just an analogy)
Suppose we were making a wedding cake (analogous to your project outcome). Essentially any recipe (analogous to a research design) is in 3 parts: ingredients, quantities and making process.
Ingredients (analogous to defining and locating the data) -We define the ingredients we need, make a list of them and then locate a shop that sells the ingredients.
Quantities (analogous to collecting the data) -We use our ingredient list and add quantities and go get them. But of course as we collect them they will not automatically be in the right quantities and forms. Therefore at the end of this we will have bags of currents, icing sugar, flour, nuts and so on but obviously in this state we cannot use them directly to get the outcome. #p#分页标题#e#
Making (analogous to pre-processing and finally generating the outcome) -Pre-process the ingredients by measuring out the various ingredients and put the correct amounts into individual bowls ready for the final stage. We use the last part of the recipe to take the bowls (analogous to our structured collection of data) and combined them correctly and then bake the cake which is our final outcome.
One final point here is that implicit in this is that the levels of skill needed become higher and higher the closer you get to generating the outcome. Summarising: if were making a cake (outcome) then I assemble the ingredients (the data) but I also need secondary information/data and skills: a recipe to tell me what to do, instructions on how to use the kitchen gadgets, how to set the timer, how to check cooking progress, how to manage costs, how to serve it up, definition of terms, I might watch a cooking program on TV and so on but no one would think of these extra things as ingredients (primary data) would they. 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

A Summary of what to do
To get at the primary data that you need there are 6 steps and you might find it useful to use the acronym: SAM-LCP as a way of remembering the steps. However, in the proposal it is only necessary to deal with spotlight, activity and collection protocol.
Spotlight -that is highlighting the data that you need. For example imagine going through a pile of CVs and using a highlighter pen just marking the people who come from Singapore and work in IT support service. That is you are ONLY spotlighting or highlighting the ones where you will extract primary data and ignoring everything else. Thus the spotlight does two things here it tells us the location of the data (it’s in the CVs) and what data we want to extract (profiles of IT people from Singapore).
Activity -this is the main activity used to record that primary data and together with the spotlight it then effectively become a definition of the data. For example some common activities are: Account for, Analyse, Appraise, Assess, Catalogue, Collect, Compare, Compile, Contrast, Criticise, Define, Describe, Differentiate, Discuss, Evaluate, Examine, Explain, Explore, Illustrate, Interpret, Justify, Link, Outline, Portray, Profile , Represent, Standardise, Summarise, Synthesise etc.
So putting it all together I spotlight the CVs of people who come from Singapore and work in IT support service in order to compile (activity) a job profile (primary data definition) for each person highlighted
Model or Simulate -strictly this is NOT a step that one records in the specification but its acts as a check on your Spotlight and Activity. So I recommend that you invent some data just to see that what you have said makes sense and you can write it down. So using my example I would invent a few job profiles for people who work in IT support services and by that means I can feel confident I know what I am looking for as data. #p#分页标题#e#
Localization – meaning where will you go to actually collect the primary data (this could be a place or it might be a log file, a pile of documents, or a person and so on). Just think, if you don’t know where the data is you cannot collect it.
Collection Protocol -what is the protocol used to collect the actual data (observation, document searching, interviews, questionnaire and so on). Please remember this is a protocol meaning you have to identify the data that you want before you collect it. Using my earlier example, my protocol was ”people who come from Singapore and work in IT support service“ and I compiled the profiles by using let’s say a document search.
Presentation -try to think through how this raw collection of date will be presented in your work so that people can see what you actually collected prior to it being pre-processed into a perhaps more structured form and later into your outcome; typical structured forms area: set of Descriptions, Calendar, Cartoon, Catalogue, Chart, Checklist, Collation, Concordance, Diagram, Dictionaries, Dossier, History, Index. Matrix/Table, Profile, Prospectus, Protocol, Schedule and many other possibilities but often a clear order catalogue is the most useful form.
Example -Suppose I was considering the use of Digital Paper Readers for use by the Abu Dhabi Police Force and since this is a very new technology, I am proposing is a position paper on this technology discussing its potential usage areas in policing activities and associated issues. Here, one might think of the problem as being about concerns as to wasting money with an untried technology or worries that one might get left behind technologically so the position paper is a necessary confidence building step prior to perhaps a full scale feasibility study.
Spotlight -here I might decide to highlight four areas of relevant interest as far as this technology is concerned and I decide to limit it just to traffic policing at this stage because in that area one often has to make notes, drawing or sketches (accidents for example) as well as look up traffic violation laws and the technology looks as if it would be useful in that area. Therefore I decide to spotlight data in 4 areas of concern: typical traffic policing activities, security concerns, uploading data and technical support. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Activity -in the above 4 areas I decide to catalogue elements in each one supported by a short discussion. So putting it all together I spotlight 4 areas of relevant concern and catalogue and discuss selected elements in each of those 4 areas.
Note – at proposal and assignment stage we are only interested to see clarity in the above two items. The remainder would then be used to make sure you have a good definition for the data but would later be added into your project document. #p#分页标题#e#
 

Common Errors
Omit Spotlight and activity -It is unfortunately all too common for students to go straight to specifying how to collect the data without first defining what that data is supposed to be. It MUST be obvious to ANY thinking person that it is just completely illogical to say how you will collect something before you know what that something is. It would be a silly as turning up at my house knowing you have to collect something and deciding that a Scooter will do only to later find out when you got there is was a Grand Piano.
Commonly this error is shown by lines such as ”I will use interviewing and a questionnaire to gather my data“ but without telling us what the spotlight and activity are (ie. no data is defined)
Only says the Location – many students just say where the primary data is located. So we might see things like ”my primary data can be found in company reports and statistics“ – well that might be true but it is miles away from telling us what the primary data is supposed to be. This error is often compounded by listing dozens of locations so we see things like ”my primary data is company IT strategies, network plans, training policies, help desk protocols and staff utilization factors“.
Confusion over Primary and Secondary Data – it is unfortunately all too common for a students to state that the literature review is also the primary data or state that an existing (so must be secondary) document or documents are primary data.
I offer two outline examples where I just look at the spotlight and activity leaving out all the other details as a student exercise.
Example 1 -In this study the idea is to generate an evaluative report on Skype usage trends and from that draw some conclusion as to its efficacy as a communications suite in a modern business environment. To do this it is necessary to map out the dimensions of this problem space.
Spotlight – the data will be collected from participants based on the opinions of those deemed to be active in business in some way and aware of the necessity and value of communication technologies and protocols available in the market today.
Activity – seek opinion variables which may be classified under the headings: technology knowledge, future choices, current communications position, communications costs, system features and security.
I strongly advise that when you write down the primary data like this that you simulate it as well and try to write down some items as if you were collecting them for real. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Example 2 -assume here my spotlight is to seek copies of business plans for IT infrastructures and company policies with regard to those same IT infrastructures. Be careful here as the copies of plans are NOT primary data they are just where the data can be found. #p#分页标题#e#
I must decide what to extract (my primary data) from the data sources mentioned above and then use that primary data to construct an outcome. Suppose the outcome is to be an evaluative report on the degree to which company IT plans and policies match one another and some recommendation to make the link more tangible so that business objectives are more readily achieved.
So my activity is to identify and extract important features of both policies and plans. Now that I have my spotlight and activity I decide to list the following as primary data items for two reasons: I can extract them from the business plans and policies and I deem them useful in helping me formulate my outcome.
Business Plan -Remember for this to be primary data there MUST be lots of different plans for you to look at to extract the primary data. It’s hard to be precise but normally we would want to look at as many as 30 different business plans.
Rationale applied to a particular plan, why was it made, etc
Problem or problems being addressed,
Short term or long term,
Related to upgrades or new technology,
Where personnel costs included
Total budget and Time scale etc.

Policies -Remember for this to be primary data there MUST be lots of different policies for you to look at to extract the primary data. It’s hard to be precise but normally we would want to look at as many as 30 different policies.
Stated Purpose
Policy areas (what is being covered by the policy)
What limits are set in each area
What monitoring arrangements are stated, etc.
So at the end of this collection phase you will have a detailed primary data collection extracted from many business plans and policies you looked at. 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
Research Method
These are problem solving frameworks or models (survey, case study, vignette, experiment, action research, etc) that are useful for various kinds of primary data research effort. The actual choice is never easy but it is useful to recall that in research, we usually have a particular focus: understand something, explore something, describe something, explain something, improve something, build something or prove something.
Depending on one’s basic focus or purpose a particular Research Method will present itself. However, there are many other deciding factors: context, time available, skills available, practicalities, access to data, what kind of outcome you want, cost, quantitative/qualitative, scale, control, sensitivity of the data and so on. As a simple summary we might be best guided by knowing the following principal links where we might say that the research method is good at generating the basic purpose/focus and then consider other relevant factors.
Case Studies – typically used to understand a situation where an outcome might have been a position paper or a feasibility study. #p#分页标题#e#
Vignettes – typically used to explain an idea or situation especially when the situation is poorly understood and these might be expressed in an outcome of a position paper or an evaluative report
Action Research – typically used to improve a situation where many people work together with a large or small set of improvement ideas or goals and essentially the work implies testing or using them and the whole thing is summed up at the end of the work in something like an evaluative report or recommendations for new processes or technology
Survey – typically used to describe a situation and typically we have an outcome of a survey report or a set of recommendations.
When assessing what a student says here, be mindful that their understanding is usually precarious at this stage and so they will often be irrational. For example, they will say ‘I am taking action in my research to do X, therefore my method is Action Research’ or ‘I am looking at historical data so my method must be Biographies’ and so on. They will be looking for an algorithm here, a simple route to a decision and unfortunately there is no such possibility so staff need to be as helpful as they can but also sympathetic.
 

Data Collection Protocols
Within a Research Method there must be space for data collection. There is a large number of ways to collect data and ANY of them might be used in ANY Research Method and it is possible to use more than one method in any study. There has to be a protocol with each collection method. Put simply one has to supply a process, a series of steps around each collection vehicle so that actually collection is carried out correctly and reliably.
Collection Vehicle  Brief Description  Typical use
1.  Activity logs/skill sheets  Written documentation of participant's attendance, achievement or acquisition of skills  Good for what and how many questions
2.  Document searching  Review of written documents such as performance ratings, program logs, tally sheets, and other existing indicators  Good for what and how many questions Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

3.  Focus groups  Moderated discussions on a particular topic or issue where we are essentially looking for opinion on something specific. In general one might just think of this method as interviewing in groups rather than one to one.  Good for what, how, and why questions
4.  Interviewing  Data collection through oral conversations  Good for what and why questions
5.  Observation  Watching people engaged in activities and recording what occurs  Good for how, what, and how many questions
6.  Portfolios  Compilations in various forms but within a set theme  Good for gaining an overview and asking certain question about how #p#分页标题#e#
7.  Questionnaire  Written responses to clearly defined questions  Good for what and how many questions.
8.  Role Playing/Simulation  Where we simulate some activity so that it is better understood  Good when it is impossible or undesirable to observe an activity in the real world
9.  Seminars  Moderated discussion but led by a position paper which sets out an idea which needs to be debated  Good for testing and idea where we set out both to gain understanding and look for other views or opinions
10.  Tests  Where one want to see or measure performance in some way  Good when you want a lot of control of the data to be collected

Common Errors -It is unfortunately all too common for students to get the Research Method and data collection totally muddled and such confusion cannot really be excused and can only be attributed to lack of effort in learning these elements. Confusion is unforgivable and work that displays this kind of error must be rejected and the student asked to put in effort to learn these principles and ideas.
 

Research Styles
This idea is really about the data and in general, data might be broadly classified into qualitative (words, descriptions, pictures etc) and quantitative (numbers, values, counts etc). In research one does not always quite decide this at the outset; it becomes obvious once you know what primary data you are looking for.
 

Thinking or Research Approach
Most students will have heard of induction and deduction (there is a third way called abduction but we shall not discuss it) and indeed it is easy to find definitions of them but they are quite subtle concepts. The importance of this element is that it helps define what primary data you want and later how the collected data will be processed. Basically, if one is deductive that implies you have a firm theory and so the primary data that you want is very clear as the whole rationale is to get data that seems likely to support your theory.
Example -I have added in some keywords below but I only use them to be sure I have included all that is needed to give a clear statement of my research. I advise you to add the keywords as you develop the description and then (because the template has a word limit) remove them if necessary before copying into the template itself.
 (1) My research relates to management concerns over trustworthiness in computer users (problem) where personal data is being handled such as in Banking. I am intending to explore in an inductive (you can say empirical) (thinking approach) the difficult idea of trustworthiness which is very sensitive in terms of accuracy, potential loss or improper disclosure but little understood. It seems best therefore to use an exploratory study in an attempt to identify and explain key points and ideas regarding trustworthiness (spotlight) so it follows my research style is largely qualitative (research style) in nature. #p#分页标题#e#Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

 I will use a case study approach (Research Method) as trustworthiness might be context defined and I have in mind to produce a position paper (outcome) on the nature of trustworthiness in the use of IT in banking for presentation to senior management (actors) who may use it to bring about change by setting policies on personnel security processes or possibly inform them so a further more detailed study can be undertaken all with the intention of assuring the level of trust (target). At this stage it seems best to use interviewing and perhaps some observation (data collection method) as an appropriate way to get my primary data because trustworthiness issues are inherently sensitive in nature.
 (2) My presenting problem relates to poor inter-staff relationships in the IT support area (problem) evidenced by many quarrels, arguments and bad feeling. The purpose of the study is hopefully to create harmonious relationships so that the business focus is not affected with smooth running system (target). At this early stage I feel that I want a relationship awareness training plan (outcome) where my staff are shown how to build good relationships and control quarrels and arguments and it will be used by training managers (actors) to gain my target effects.

This seem deductive (you can say rational) (thinking approach) because out of my detailed study of the literature and in particular the concepts found in Emotional Intelligence offer a theory of how these troublesome sorts of incidents can be handled and eventually mostly prevented thus it is an adequate description of anger management in the work place. With this theory in mind I will look for illustrations of anger incidents (spotlight) and how they were dealt with hence Vignettes (Research Method) is an appropriate method and it follows that the work is largely qualitative (Research Style) coupled with interviewing (data collection method) as my main data collection method.
One needs to be very careful here what you say because usually induction and qualitative go together but here my deduction amounts in the research to me testing my theory about EI by inspecting incidents and testing if EI could or would have prevented or resolved them
(3) NGVTech had difficulty in managing projects tasks and allocating materials simultaneously, including making adjustments and providing correct data to the finance for reporting (problem). The purpose is to provide a feasibility report that would assist the management of NGVTech (actor) in its decision to proceed with its plan in evaluating and acquiring a suitable integrated system to support its growth and maintain its level of competitiveness in the industry (target).
I intend to explore inductively (thinking approach) the current business processes related to warehousing to assess the full extent of the problem and its complexity. This is to establish the requirements and the sort of system that would be suitable to handle current volume and more. With a detailed literature review on integrated systems, particularly on the idea of an ERP for the shipyard environment, would help me structure alternative solutions and desirable future state. #p#分页标题#e#
To form the components of the feasibility report (outcome), I will use a survey approach (research method) that would include interviews, questionnaire and observations (data collection method) to identify and describe the operational, technical and financial needs, capability and constraints (spotlight). Thus, my research style is largely qualitative (research style) in nature.
One need care because it’s all too easy to see Qualitative as just meaning textual data but that is to misunderstand this style where it really means looking for qualities in the situation that helps your understanding of it and that might mean numerical data also
Tutor Review – this is generally good but although induction has been chosen here it is not clear we have any rationale for that. The same applies to the choice of survey, it may be right but no rationale supports it. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Common Errors – there is only one error here and it’s not so much that students try hard but find it difficult but find it difficult so don’t try at all. When this latter thing happens students just add in the key words: inductive, Research method, Quantitative and so on but without any understanding and effectively invent fanciful rationales of their own all in some vain hope that as long as it sounds remotely correct things will turn out alright.
The trouble with this is we then get nonsense answers of the form ”my approach is deductive because my data is qualitative“ or ”my research method is an Action Rationale where I will use a questionnaire sent by email“ or ”my data spotlight is observation“ and so on.
One final element of confusion is that students can very often not make any distinction between the data and its method of collection; ”my primary data is a questionnaire“ or choose a method of collection long before they have any idea what the primary data is.
 
This if often an area of real weakness and it seems largely to be caused by the feeling in almost everyone that they know how to write an aim and objectives but this is rarely if ever true. The reason for this weakness seems to be two-fold; firstly, few students are able to make the clear distinction between what is a task and what is an objective and secondly, many students fail to understand that the aim and objectives refer to what they will do in the project and instead will give an aim and objectives for some system which is the base of their work.
A kind of Proof – a key idea is that an aim or an objective must be measurable in the sense that others can see they have been done and usually completion represents a major step forward. It is helpful to think of an aim and an objective as requiring ‘proof’ of completion and that is what distinguishes them from just tasks. As a simple analogy, if I were scheduled to fly to Abu Dhabi then I might performs the tasks: book flight, book taxi, pack bag, set my alarm clock and so on but if I have to prove that I have done all this the University would be satisfied with my Boarding Card as proof of completion and hence pay me for going. #p#分页标题#e#
Aim structure – the aim has four elements: activity, outcome, spotlight and target. The ‘proof’ that the aim has been completed is when you produce the project outcome. Briefly, the activity is what you do to the spotlighted data to get the outcome which when used will generate the target effects.
Objective structure – an objective has five elements: activity, milestone, spotlight, bounded and progressive. One notes here that progressive means that objectives tend to follows on from an earlier one and bounded means it must be able to be done during the project itself (as opposed to after it is finished).
One should note the idea of progression is not visible in the same way that say a milestone would be but it is a property of the whole set of objectives. In much the same way, bounded is not visible because it refers to the fact that an objective must be completed within the project period; that it is bounded by the project itself. Briefly, the activity is what you do to the spotlighted data to generate the milestone document (a proof that you have completed what the objective states).
 

Method of Construction
Write the aim using the elements activity, outcome, spotlight and target. At this stage students should be very familiar with these terms so it should present no great difficulty if they think it through using the aim structure. For the objectives we proceed as follows:
Make a full but progressive list of activities at a high level of detail, don’t worry if they seem trivial at this stage.
Refine the list by grouping into items that act as a kind of endpoint to a series of tasks
Decide the milestone (a document of some kind) using the end point mentioned above and recall that every milestone (proof) requires and objective to generate or obtain it.
 

Example of a Complete set
Aim
To investigate and illustrate (activity) Phishing incidents (spotlight) within the organization in order to produce a protocol (outcome) that can be used to prevent or mitigate (target) its adverse affects on computer users and the organization itself.
Notice the PROOF that you have completed this aim is that you have documented the protocol (outcome) and placed it in your project document so others can see it 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
Objectives
1 To identify and list reported Phishing events that have taken place in the last year from representative computer users in the organization.
 2. To design (activity) a questionnaire/interview questions (milestone) to elicit relevant information from users based on an assessment of typical phishing scams (spotlight).
 Notice the PROOF that you have achieved this objective is that you have documented the questionnaire (milestone) and placed it into your project document so others can see it. #p#分页标题#e#
2 To classify the data obtained into a preliminary illustrative catalogue outlining why and how the classification was arrived at.
3 To standardize the illustrative catalogue based on the questionnaire/interview data into publishable form suitable for dissemination within the company.
4 To construct the usage protocol based on the questionnaire/interview data to complement the published catalogue of standardised illustrations.

Aim
To assess (activity) the operational, technical and financial needs and capability (spotlight) of NGVTech in order to produce a feasibility report (outcome) that can be used to aide management in its decision (target) to proceed with its plan to evaluate and acquire a suitable integrated system.
 

Objectives
1 To identify and construct (activity) a process maps (milestones) of the project management and warehouse business processes and its resources (spotlight) to establish the current state of the problem.
2 To design and prepare (activity) interview questions (milestone) on any expectation, assumptions and constraints of the management on its consideration of a new system (spotlight).
3 To design and construct (activity) a questionnaire (milestone) to obtain information on how the organisational changes will affect the working environment of those affected by a system (spotlight).
4 To identify and develop (activity) a tabulation (milestone) of the characteristics of an integrated system befitting method of operations in meeting user requirements and associated industry standards focusing on the project management and warehouse (spotlight).
5 To identify and develop (activity) a list of alternative solutions (milestone) befitting the organisation corporate strategies and goals (spotlight).

Common Errors – there a several possible errors here: the feature structure outlined above is missing so one often find there is no milestone or no spotlight, the activity does not refer to the data, every milestone is the same (typically a report), the objectives are stated as system requirements, the objectives are stated as benefits.
A starting point in assessing the aim is to look for a clear outcome and in the objectives look for a clear milestone because if these are missing nothing can make sense and all we have is a list of tasks. To use a simple analogy, there is no point in an instruction such as ‘To go to the shops’ because based on this statement we have no idea what we are looking for and so nothing to bring back as evidence that we did the shopping. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 
This section is important because it is supposed to make a student aware that there is a practical dimension; meaning you have to be able to do what you stated you would in the aim and objectives. It follows that mapping out the resources is an essential step because it forces you to confront a project’s practical needs. This needs care because it is all too easy to just write a long list of everything you can think of but without any contextualisation; meaning you construct the list by seriously thinking through you own project. #p#分页标题#e#
In general resources it will cover such things as: software and other tools, equipment, skills, literature including any previous situation assessments, history and secondary documentation/data, research report and standards, time, training, funding, sources of help, useful websites, access to data and other permissions, security and confidentiality issues, data storage, lab facilities, but don’t be limited by just these or think that they all always apply but always make sure that what you ask for as a resources you can definitely get otherwise your project might fail.
Be careful not to be trivial here: that is certain resources such as pens, pencils, printer, computer are just routine things available to anyone at this level and no special plans have to be made to acquire them and in general there is no chance that they might not become available.
The recommended way of dealing with this is to take your detailed list of tasks that you used to obtain your aim and objectives (no matter how trivial they seem) and just go to each task in turn and ask what resources are need to complete it.
Common errors -these are mainly to do with students not thinking contextually (they don’t thing about what they have to do at all) through a project from tasks to resources so one often finds that students only mention getting access to literature and to data as if nothing else is needed or just write a long list without much contextualising thought. It is also common to see a student just write down what he will do and so avoid answering the question altogether.
There is also a contextualization issue, one needs to be sure that as you read the list that it supports the project as unfortunately many students will just copy examples or just use the list of headings above mechanically and this implies that no serious thought has been expended. What we are looking for is a considered list of resources and poor students will just want an answer that sounds as if it’s ‘right.’ However here is a reasonable example provided by a student.
1 Letter of support from Acorn Systems to carry out the research.
2 Permission of Acorn Systems in order: to reach their customer database for asking them to fill up the questionnaires, to reach their consultants for asking them to fill up the questionnaires, to reach and review their project history documents.
3 Online and Offline Libraries for literature review on Activity Based Costing and IT project management.
4 Vision and mission statements of Acorn Systems to understand the strategy of the company.
5 Project History documents and customer cases to scan through for issues related to my problem setting.
6 Development history and future plan documents on Acorn EPS to explore the evaluation of the software.
7 Acorn Management, consultants, development team; Acorn clients.
8 Assessments of major competitors and their products in the market. #p#分页标题#e#
9 Skills required: Presentation, communication, preparing and evaluating questionnaires.
10 Skills required to be developed: Preparing and evaluating questionnaires.
11 Time: Duration of the project is expected as 6 months with 4 fours of study per day.
12 Tools needed: Company intranet, Sales Force web site, internet, project scheduling software (MS Project), mind mapping software, questionnaire templates

 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Testing and Evaluation -Recall that at the proposal stage, no project work has been done and no outcome is available therefore students are providing a plan of how evaluation will be done. You may think of the work taking time out at the end of the project to test the outcome and reflection so that lessons can be learned from ones practice. There are two aspects:
Evaluate or Test your Outcome -map out what must be done to test the outcome when you finally get it but BEFORE it is used – it follows that project outcome evaluation is in most cases a paper exercise.
Evaluate or Test your Practice – students hopefully will have a plan of what must be done, the methods and approach to be employed. So here students must say how they will reflect on the various choices they made; a plan for evaluating project practice AFTER it has been carried them out. Reflecting on practices will often uncover deep meaning about the nature, real purpose and intentions of you own deliberate (because you made choices) actions and assumptions and these may prove uncomfortable but are a necessary learning device.
Finally, the evaluation is done BEFORE the project document is finalised by writing ones conclusions as a final task. It must be emphasised that writing your evaluation is NOT the same as writing conclusions although the one may inform the other. Conclusions are about generalising your outcome and to do that you need to think about your outcome, its evaluation coupled with your expert knowledge gained from the literature review. In both these aspects a thorough preparation from the literature is an essential step otherwise one simply does not have the requisite knowledge to be meaningful here.
 

The Importance of Evaluation
The importance of evaluation is that it allows you to learn lessons from what you have done, your research practice and from what you have produced, your research outcome as well as feel a sense of assurance that what you have produced will be able to bring about change in the way expected or required to deal with the presenting problem.
For example, with regard to a research outcome or practice, one could be very simple in evaluation and say ”will it work for ones outcome“ or ”did it work for ones practice“ and that will give you a yes/no answer but although that is useful it is not lastingly helpful. Consider what happens when you ask these simple questions let us assume you get the answer ”no“ well obviously it’s very good to know that but what is also of immense value is to know why it does not work that way we are able to learn and the same thing applies when the answer is a yes. So a good focus always in evaluation is to look for explanation or discussion of the evaluative findings on both outcome and practice so we build up our store of knowledge. #p#分页标题#e#
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

Warning on Writing an Evaluation
Evaluation is a difficult process but paradoxically, it often seems to get excited by the idea and write down all manner of things that you will do but this often lands you in deep trouble when you try to work out how to do them. I therefore advise that you keep at the forefront of your mind your project outcome and practice but in a strictly contextualised manner putting you right at the heart of your own problem setting.
If you do not do this with care your answers may be little more than extracts from these notes, usually in a an exaggerated form and therefore instantly show you have almost zero understating of the complexity and contextualisation of this process and that will attach severe criticism and a very low mark.
 

Change Evaluation Potential of Outcome.
When evaluating any change associated with a given outcome it is best to start by considering what sort of change or change was intended so the following change areas effectively become an evaluation feature:
Changes in Policy – such changes are initiated by the management function.
Changes in Procedure – the most common form, usually directed at key working areas.
Changes in Structure – changing elements that tend to be static: staff, buildings etc.
Changes in Attitude – often suggested by the analysis but usually difficult to implement.

In these change areas where you perceive that your outcome will have an effect do a detailed evaluation using some or all of the following factors. Please be aware that systemically does NOT mean systematically.
Systemically Desirable -will the outcome when used improve the whole problem setting in some way? That is you
may make a change say in one department but its effects will spill over into improving the whole
company/organisation.
Culturally Feasible – will the outcome prove acceptable to the actors and those affected by it?
Efficacious -will the outcome when used actually at least in the short term?
Effective -will the outcome when used bring about a long term effect?
Efficient -will the outcome when used work in some optimal manner?
Ethicality -is the use of the outcome ethical, within accepted codes of practice and the law?
Elegant -is the outcome pleasing to the designers and users? It is possible to ask does the design feel as if the whole
problem was considered with imagination or if it was all routine and mundane.Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

Much of what you do in evaluation is based on the notion of values where ‘values’ is generally understood to mean a belief system that underpins ones judgement. Essentially, we can evaluate the changes in terms of worth over five domains as follows #p#分页标题#e#
Evaluation of Change Potential – the outcome is the agent of change in the hands of the actor so think about its potential to bring about change the changes being sought.
Evaluation of Worth – meaning how far have we gone by using the outcome in terms of solving the original presenting problem and was the whole exercise worth the effort?
Evaluation of Use – every project will generate an outcome and have established an appropriate actor and looking at those two things can we assess how useful the outcome, is in the hands of a given actor, is likely to be. Here one might also useful consider the support needs tied to the use of the outcome and that might cover resources as well as training.
Evaluation of Acceptability – every outcome is intended to be used but although an actor might be named one must consider the acceptability to them of what the outcome implies regarding the actions they take and whether they are willing to carry them out. In this sense there may be personal issues to do with skills, job changes, allocation of responsibilities and resources and one must never forget there may be significant ethical implication as well.
Evaluation of the Environment – every outcome will be used in a particular setting and although the study itself should have considered this as part of the data gathering process it is necessary to examine ones outcome and how well it fits with the current environment as well as any new one that it might be desirable to create.
Evaluation of Functionality – the outcome itself will in effect contain functional elements and we need to look at those and see if they were appropriate, consistent and comprehensive.
Evaluation of Scalability – the outcome itself will have been created with a particular, usually limited scenario in mind but here one considers if its use can be scaled up and if so what are the benefits and problems associated with that.
Evaluation of Costs – one has to consider that cost implications of using a given outcome even when it brings obvious financial benefits. Often this type of evaluation is done by a simple review of associated resources and their cost but may extend to a more sophisticated process such as net present value calculations.
Evaluation of Reliability – here one must consider how confident we are in the efficacy of the outcome when put into use and in that sense is it reliable, will it work in the long run and in any scaled up situational use. In this section one might also consider the notion of safety in use as well.
Evaluation of mood – any outcome will not exist in a vacuum and associated with it will be a kind of working atmosphere and levels of trust in the actors and users and all these put together give you a sense of mood and if things are to go well we need that mood to be in some sense positive, warm, helpful and sustaining.
Outcome Evaluative Mechanisms -There are many ways we can do the actual evaluation but the most common are as follows although in every case they must be supported by evidence. #p#分页标题#e#
Compare with existing similar products.
Compare against a standard of some kind (this may be anything not just published ones).
Compare against some defined criteria.
Compare using expert opinion.
Compare with defined objectives.Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Comparison by using simulations of the outcome as it might be used
Compare using engineering principles: reliability, efficiency etc

This section just outlines some very general methodological means of focusing on evaluation.
Heuristic evaluation -an evaluator's experiential reactions to use of the outcome so one asks essentially does use of this outcome ”feel right“ to an expert.
Actor testing -studies conducted by actors, usually in semi-realistic contexts. The aim is to see how the outcome is used and what usability or functionality issues arise.
Interviews & Questionnaires -focus Groups, customer feedback and various methods involving direct user reactions can be used to obtain various qualitative data about users' experiences with the outcome.
Trials and Simulation -using one's colleagues (or a similar accessible, controllable group) to try the outcome for a period of time, before it is given to real actors.
Storyboarding – using some kind of mood boards, storyboards, cartoons, rich pictures may help you to see how your outcome will be used by actors to bring about change and what kind of change that is.
Ethnography (from the word ethnic) -the most realistic way of evaluating an outcome is to go into the place where it is intended to be used and watch real actors using it.
Breakdown Analysis -a breakdown is any incident where the actor has cause to focus on the outcome itself rather than its effect or perhaps more simply, the outcome is might not have the desired effects and the actor wonders why.
Common Errors – the most persistent error we see here is that students take the above notes and simply copy them into their work without any attempt at contextualisation and practicality. Therefore we see a student saying ”I will test my outcome to see if it’s systemically desirable“ but without any hint as to how that might be done or even that they have any understanding at all as to what it means.
The second error is more worrying because it points to a serious lack of awareness on the part of the student. In almost all MSc projects there is no time to implement the outcome and get feedback or metrics relating to its use but it is unfortunately all too common for students to write material that can only happen after the project has ended.
 

Evaluating & Testing Practice
Testing what you plan as tasks, methods and approach is hard work because often we don’t like critically reflecting on the way we work; but it must be done honestly. But recall, in the proposal you are writing just a plan of what you will do. The actual evaluation obviously can only take place after the project outcome has been generated. There are two elements: #p#分页标题#e#
Basic Reflection -run through a series of general questions, writing down your thoughts; will be positive and some negative but all designed to show that learning has taken place: how well did I do it; was it successful? Could or should I have done it another way in parts or as a whole? Did I make any mistakes and were there any surprises? Did I learn anything about research? Did I properly identify constraints involved, including time management? Did I get the scale or scope wrong?
Focused Reflection -In this section you plan how you will evaluate the main elements of your project work and again it must be done with commitment and honesty so that you can show you have learned from the experience. Here are several things you might consider.
Outcome Process Evaluation – look at your research design and the defined model or process used to take the primary data and transform it into the outcome and reflect on how well it worked. This is generally in two parts:
Pre-Processing – was this easy, were your processing and data organisational ideas right or wrong, did you have to go back to get more data, did you have all the tools you needed and were they adequate, was the data consistent and matched to the criteria you set and so on.
Outcome Processing – how easy was it to generate your intended Outcome using the models you defined or perhaps the secondary data you needed at this stage was hard to obtain. Did you follow your design here or did it prove impossible, did you have to get further help, did you misjudge what was needed and so on. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Literature Preparation – were there omissions, looking back were there things you misunderstood, were the sources you used reliable and were they current.
Primary Data Definition – how well did you define the data, did you get good coverage of the problem area, was your definition inaccurate or vague, did you consider confidentiality?
Choices Made – Epistemological Outlook, Research Method, Research Approach and Style, data collection protocol, sample size, population, etc
Data Collection Protocol – how well did this go in practice, where your selection criteria accurate, did you get the calculated sample size, did it prove hard to use, any ethical or confidentiality issues that proved difficult and so on.
Common Errors – this is similar to what was written above in that many students will just copy these headings into their answers without a shred of understanding, contextualization or selectivity. Other will ignore this section altogether showing they did not look up any of the references.
 

Exemplar Example
This is an extended example(double the word count what you are allowed) because I am trying to let you see my thinking but much of what I say here would be ‘understood’ but to help you I have filled out the details. Suppose my outcome is a policy (it might be about anything) generated deductively by using a survey vehicle made up of interviews and a questionnaire. So the focus of my evaluation is on the way I gathered and processed the data (my project practice to get my intended policy outcome) and then on to evaluating the outcome itself. Therefore as a plan I might write as follows where it is best to start with evaluation of practice then evaluation of the outcome but the two phases are connected so don’t be afraid to move back and forth from one to the other as you proceed or reverse the order. #p#分页标题#e#
Change Aims -The Policy will be designed to bring about procedural changes and it is hoped attitudinal ones across several departments and in that sense it is hoped that this new policy will prove to be functionally sound and if that is the case it is likely to be systemically desirable as well as culturally feasible though one must always be aware that this change is ethically sound.
Practice Evaluation -My main focus will be on the sample collected to consider on how well it met the criteria I set and explain any weaknesses or deviations found during processing and whether they were due to design, misunderstanding or collection errors. Of particular concern will be whether my deductive choice of data was adequate and focused based on my theory for this particular policy and I will do this by a careful consideration of the answers against the theory obtained from the sample as this may furnish me with explanation or descriptions of where any weaknesses might lie and of course validate my choices.
Processing data using template analysis for the interview and simple statistics for the questionnaire has been planned and during evaluation I will review the efficacy of these choices based on the difficulty I might find in producing an adequate (meaning useful) interpretation of the data as presented and hence hopefully arrive at constructive insights and explanation by means of which these mechanisms might have been enhanced and also if necessary to consider making changes to my outcome or qualifications to it if this evaluative review shows any serious weaknesses.
Outcome Evaluation -The outcome will be a policy and it is intended to use the PLOT model as a guide to building it using the collected data. The first part of my evaluation will be informed by the practice evaluation as that might have indicated some weaknesses in the data definition and collection which may give rise to concerns about the adequacy of the data in this case to build an appropriate and useful policy.
I will use the four elements of PLOT (Principles, Links, Objects and Tracking) in matrix form, then map out each policy element and where its effect might be felt and I believe that will give an adequate means of testing the efficacy of the policy. Included in the matrix will be columns for assessment of systemic potential, functionality and ethicality. Once the matrix is complete it will form the basis of a seminar session with selected actors to finally consider the value and adequacy of the policy.
Student Example 1 -this example shows what a submission but it is easily seen to be of the poorest kind and lacks any real thought specifically about his/her outcome and practice. The student wrote:
I will evaluate my project outcome and practice by:
1) Listing down criteria for evaluation 2) Evaluating the mentioned/chosen two or three Information Systems based on these criteria 3) Presenting the evaluation results in suitable formats 4) Interpreting these evaluations results in a clear and unambiguous way and shows how a computerized approach has really benefited the Human Resource Manager at Accenture Mauritius Limited. #p#分页标题#e#
Notice -there is no mention of what the outcome is so we have no idea what this student is talking about and I cannot see even a hint he is even aware about evaluation of practice. If one is honest here all the student has done is restate or explain what the question is asking so it has nothing of value in it. For example, item 1 says ”Listing criteria“ but it is very hard to see that is anything more that a rewording of the question.
Student Example 2 -My outcome would be a recommendations report on improving the functionality of Acorn EPS in order to make it more attractive and its implementations smoother. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

I am planning to make a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for the evaluation of the outcome. I will map out the various elements in the recommendations report into the general areas: cultural feasibility, systematically desirability, efficiency, usability and functionality into SWOT matrix. I think this will give an adequate means of testing my outcome, and it will be a base for the presentation I am planning to prepare for Acorn Management to show the results achieved.
Besides that, I will compare features of major ABC software in the market with the final solution if the changes proposed are applied. I will evaluate my research practice by establishing a Lessons Learned document for the project. The document will critically evaluate the scope and scale, and the project together with the time constraints based on the mapped areas with various dimensions. Also it will evaluate the data collection protocols, and comment on the primary data needed to be collected further if there would be any missing points in my primary data and needed to be completed later on.
Comment – this is a good start but mostly you are dealing with technical features in your recommendation and it’s hard to see for example how a change in the way a bit of software works can be checked for systemically desirable properties so I hope this is not just a rushed idea. In your evaluation plan for practice it all sounds rather mechanical and could be written into almost any project so again I am sceptical as to whether you really have thought this out in a contextualised manner
 
The Research Question is a focal point in your work because it is the place where all the elements are brought together into a concise a lucid sentence that expresses what it is you are seeking as an outcome in your research and what its purpose might be as a change agent.
The only possible interrogatives (words that signal a question is being asked) are: whose, who, whom, what, which, where, whence, whither, when, how, why, wherefore, does/is, s/are, and can. But commonly we only use: Whose, who, what, which, where, when, how, why, does/is, is/are, and can.
Research Questions have 7 features: Interrogative (I), Outcome (O), Actor (A), Problem (P), Target (T), Spotlight (S) and Activity (a) although activity is often implied rather that stated. It is vital you understand that the order in which the six features appear in the Research Question will depend on the interrogative used. If you are not careful here and just stick the 6 features anywhere, choosing any interrogative you will end up with a question that makes no sense. However, the key to getting a good question usually centres on linking the outcome with the actor with the emphasis on the idea of the outcome being use by the actor to bring about change. #p#分页标题#e#
So we might word that outcome/actor link in all sort of ways, choosing the one that make the sentence both lucid and yet natural in English and stating as clearly as you can how the actors use the outcome. So here imagine for simplicity the outcome of a ”policy“ (or any other outcome) then we might express this is any number of ways.
... policy adopted by IT managers for use in....
... policy used by help desk administrators as a way of ....
... policy for the use of sales staff in formulating ...
... policy exploited by typical computer user to gain...
... policy applied by project managers in their planning....
... policy utilized in daily operation by Network Engineers to restore...
... policy enabling departmental mangers to better utilize...
... policy employed by team leaders to enhance ....
... policy suited to the current sales staffs as means of...
... so that IT managers may adopt the policy in order to ...
.... may be enforced by the IT security managers by means of a policy ...
So for example if you use the interrogative ”what“ then the 7 feature are often placed in the order IO-APTaS but if you use ”how would“ or ”how will or ”how can“ then typically they appear in the order IPO-aSAT. There is no rule about this and only a careful reading of the question after you have written it will tell you if it is asking what you want. One final point is that it is possible to have some of these feature expressed implicitly, mostly this applies to the outcome but I would guard against this unless you feel it is absolutely necessary to make the question read correctly and naturally in English. Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

In Research Questions it us usual just to state the spotlight but here in response to question from students I have been explicit about the activity that goes with it.
Caution – questions that start with ‘how can’, ‘how could’ or ‘why’ are almost always very hard to write in English, especially if you are not a native speaker and usually they lack real thought and often end up effectively asking how to USE the outcome instead of asking FOR the outcome. If I parody this type of question we get:
”How can I use the instructions to build my Lego Model?“ or
”How can driving lessons help me get a driving licence?“ or
”In what way can possession of a car help with my transportation needs?“
When using ‘how’ in some form or ‘why’ it is often expedient to make the outcome implicit otherwise we can get awkward sounding constructions (see below) but you are advised to avoid using ‘how’ or ‘why’ if you can. #p#分页标题#e#
Examples -the following examples have been extracted from student work. Although it is usual to add the feature words in brackets as shown (unless you are near the maximum word count), it is best to do that right at the end of the construction process so that your natural reading of the question is not hampered.
1 What (interrogative) recommendations can be made regarding a BI strategy (outcome) to IT managers (actors) for dealing with suspected inaccurate KPI reports, (problem) based on a examination (activity) of the current performance management process (spotlight) in order to ensure that the business decision making process is reliable leading to increased company revenues (target)?
2 What (interrogative) server selection method (outcome) can be defined by an assessment (activity) of server hardware specifications, vendor service options, business requirements and existing selection models (spotlight) and then used by IT managers (actors) to deal with the total cost of ownership (problem) in order to maximise performance and manage IT costs (target)?
3 How can (interrogative) the deterioration in IT services (problem) be halted by accounting for (activity) all major business process steps and their necessary IT support (spotlight) so that Departmental mangers (actors) can maintain optimal efficiency (target)?
4 How can (interrogative) the deterioration in IT services (problem) be halted by creating a function report (outcome) that accounts for (activity) all major business process steps and their necessary IT support (spotlight) so that Departmental mangers (actors) can then use it to maintain optimal efficiency (target)?
5 Why (interrogative) are long billing delays and poor quality customer response (problem) occurring even though accounting staff are using the current portfolio of accounting best practices, with the outcome of this study expressed as a system evaluation report generated after a detailed analysis (activity) of the various accounting best practices (spotlight) as used by junior staff so as to explain why delays occur and hence inform management personnel (actors) so that they are able to make an informed decision (target) on possible process changes to ensure high quality customers services
6 Why (interrogative) are long billing delays and poor quality customer response (problem) occurring even though accounting staff are using the current portfolio of accounting best practices. The outcome from this study will be a system evaluation report generated after a detailed analysis (activity) of the various accounting best practices (spotlight) as used by junior staff so as to explain why delays occur and hence inform management personnel (actors) so that they are able to make an informed decision (target) on possible process changes to ensure high quality customers services?
7 To generated an evaluative report (outcome) that explains why (interrogative) long billing delays and poor quality customer response (problem) are occurring by a detailed assessment (activity) of the current portfolio of accounting best practices as used by junior staff (spotlight) and hence inform management personnel (actors) so that they are able to make an informed decision (target) on possible process changes to ensure high quality customers services? #p#分页标题#e#Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

Note. In example 3 the outcome is implicit and can only rationally be understood to be a report of some kind that accounts for processes and support needs although for completeness in example 4 I have written it with a specified outcome and this is normally the best way forward.
Also notice that use of ‘why’ is awkward if you want just one sentence so I have written it in three ways so you can see the possibilities two examples that show other ways in which to make it lucid.
 

Common Errors
Actor not credible -the actor has to be credible; no one is going to believe you if you start writing things like ”... used by central government in planning the economy...“ or ”exploited by all SME managers to gain ...“
Missing features – all the required features must usually be present for a question to be complete although it is possible that certain features might be implicit or understood.
Inappropriate Feature Order – it was stated earlier that the order in which the features presented will depend almost entirely on the interrogative used. However, many students just put in all the features without it seems concerning them as to whether the whole question then reads correctly and makes sense in English.
Not Reading the question with Understanding – it is perhaps shocking to state that very often we have a question with all or most features present but when you read the sentence it is virtually incomprehensible.
Using a simple ‘how’ -it is not really possible to ask a question unless you say ‘how can’ or how could’ or some such construction using how. If try you often end up making a statement not asking a question. For example, if you write ”how to enhance network operations..“ then in English that would be understood as introducing a list of instructions that you already have and not as a question. 
 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

Pre-Requisites
It MUST be understood that in both these processing sections it is assumed that the student is expert and knowledgeable in the topic area based on a thorough literature review and hopefully some usable experience to support it. It is simply absurd to believe that one can interpret and use the collected primary data without a consummate ability and knowledge in that area.
Processing Methods – there are a huge number of ways that data may be processed depending on its form, volume and what you intention is. It is therefore difficult to give exact instructions but only broad guidelines. In general all the methods use a model in some way: statistical models, pattern models, process models and so on – there are literally 100’s of these to choose from and the choice will be down to elements such as efficiency, suitability for the data, tool availability and perhaps most importantly, level of skill in use of the processing method. #p#分页标题#e#
Processing methods are not about leaning a few facts or the ability to name various tools. They are about usage and so unless one is willing to expend effort in practise on the method or methods chosen then its impossible to achieve anything of value.
Quantitative Processing – if the date is in a suitable numerical form and can be placed in such a form then there are a wide range of statistical tools available to you: use of the normal distribution, student t-distribution, averages, standard deviation, regression, correlation, t-tests, Chi-squared, scatter plots, dot plots, charts and graphs, cross tabulations etc. There are plenty of software tools for doing all these kind of things from simple use in Excel to SSPS but don’t be deluded into thinking that because you put data in and get a few answers that all is well. These are tools they will NOT tell you what the various answers generated mean for you situation.
For example, if you used a questionnaire and believe that two question dealing with different factors which you suspect are related in some way. It therefore might be useful to calculate the correlation coefficient to see if there is any evidence to support the belief. Of course, that is the easy part but later you will have to decide what inferences or conclusions can be drawn from this finding.
Qualitative Processing – this type of processing is used when the data is not in any simple numerical form. For example, you might have a large number of interview notes or transcripts to deal with, a pile of document searching that you have to sift through, video recordings of some situation and so on. Typical examples are template analysis, content analysis, looking for common threads, looking for outliers, word frequencies, looking for structures (opinions, definitions, policies etc) and labelling, spider diagrams and so on. In addition to these and depending on what outcome you are trying to generate you might look for models of any output form: policy models, strategy models, best practice models, processing models and so on.
For example, suppose a set of interview transcripts are to be analysed then it is possible to be inductive and just search each transcript with an open mind looking for interesting factors so in the first transcript you find 4 factors, in the next you find 2 similar factors but 3 new ones and so on as you work through the pile of transcript gradually building up a list of factors and their frequency. Alternatively, being deductive and before you start analysis you construct a simple template of exactly what factors you are looking for in each transcript. Notice, again that when all this processing is ended you will have to decide what It all means before you finally construct your outcome.
Various tools do exist for some of these things but they are not nearly so well known as the statistical ones and are never as comprehensive as a something like SPSS. For example, there is a tool called OpenMind which allows you to create a mind map of activities and convert into project plan or ThinkMap a sort of visual Thesaurus which might be useful for analysis common thematic words found in a document search. #p#分页标题#e#
None of this is simple and student must think carefully through what they want as an outcome and what they have as primary and secondary data and then make an informed decision as to how to process that data. It MUST be understood this is not about a wild guesses or a choice of anything and some serious learning and investigation must take place so that one knows what the choice means and that you can gain the necessary skills to use it.
For example, if one decides to use regression then one must be fully conversant with that process: what are the conditions for its use, how to organise the data, how to do it, what tools might be needed and how to make sense of the answers you get. Similarly if one has a pile of interview transcripts and I want to use template analysis on them then again must know what that form of analysis is, how it is done, be sure that its applicable and gain skill in its execution.
Pre-Processing the Raw Primary Data Once I have the raw (as collected) primary data I first do some pre-processing on it to give it a presentational form so it can be included in the project document and hence a structure so it is relatively easy to use to generate the outcome. For example, a suitable entity might be something like a table, a catalogue, a model and so on.
 

Outcome Processing
Once you have created a structured form for you primary data collection in pre-processing the next step is to work out how to use that data to generate your intended outcome. This is not a simple step usually and do not fall into the trap of stating mindless processes such as ”I will look at the data and get my outcome“ or ”I will do an in-depth analysis and draw conclusions“ as those are worthless because no one in the world could repeat what you have done.
In general one looks for a model or process to follow; these generators might be well known ones or you can invent your own as long as it’s clear and appropriate. Here are some examples: Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Outcome = a strategy then a suitable process might be to use the VISA model with your primary data
Outcome = a process model then a suitable way to get this would be to use the standard I/O model as a basis supplemented by ideas about best practice
Outcome = ethical guidelines then one might study existing industry standards to see the form used and then use the basic ethical model of sympathy, altruism and imagination against the recorded data.
Outcome = a best practice definition then one might use a model based on: generates a well-defined outcome, recognised as common sense, fits in well with existing procedures and processes, cost effective, using set criteria, criticality, efficient and based on principles: can be leaned, described, practiced, improved or perfected by use.
Please remember, that you should have thought about this when collecting the data otherwise when you try use your processing idea it might fail #p#分页标题#e#
Taking example 1 from the section dealing with question 6 I might take the primary data extracted from the business plans and standardise it so that the data from each plan is in exactly the same form and similarly for the policy data. The point is that not every plan or policy will cover exactly the same things so by standardising I can see what is similar, what is different and what is missing. I do the same for policies. Finally, I note any links between the plan and the policies and these links may be negative or positive
 

Outcome Processing from the Primary Data Standardised Collection
Armed now with this standardised set of data on plans and policies the last step is to work out how to use the standardised collection to get the outcome; an evaluative report on the degree to which company plans and policies match one another and some recommendation to make the link more tangible.
Now it will NOT be obvious usually how to do this, you have to work it out for yourself. It will be of no value at all to say such worthless things as ”I will look at the standardised collection and arrive at my report“ and to write such things is tantamount to saying you have not the slightest idea what you will do. In this case because the outcomes a simple report one might decide to generate this outcome by simply listing the report headings in some suitable or logical order, but notice you can only really do this is you are very knowledgeable in the topic area.
Commonalities in Business Plans – examine common areas and speculate why they might be in every, or almost every plan. Now when one speculates like this it may be necessary to go and ask for further secondary data or examine the literature to find a reliable answer. In addition to this look for any obvious links or missing links to the policies
Omissions – here I look at things that occur in some plans but not in others and again speculate why that might be so. In addition to this look for any obvious links or missing links to the policies
Oddities or Outliers – here one might during comparison find some plans or policies with unusual features (things that hardly ever occur or things where you cannot see why they might be there) and again one might try to see why this might be.
 
 

Introduction
In the project document you must write a full Literature Review of around 3,000 to 5,000 words and if that is to be done well you need to have a good plan to start with, the plan can be enhanced later but it is vital you have a reasonable one to start with.
 

Purpose Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

The purpose of the literature review is that at the end of it you are demonstrably competent, knowledgeable and expert in your topic areas. It is not easy to say exactly what is meant by being expert but you may like to think of it in the sense that you know more, much more than the average person on that subject area, you would be someone colleagues might turn to if they wanted expert opinion or guidance. #p#分页标题#e#
Recall that most often there are two elements involved: firstly is that you are expert in the applications area and secondly you are expert in the IT technology associated with that application area. For example, the application area might be company communications practices and procedures and the IT technology area that might go with this in a project could be VoIP, Instant messaging, email and online conferencing.
In terms of expertise many people will know about communications and instant messaging so in an MSc study the knowledge and expertise demonstrated must exceed by a long way what we might regard as common knowledge or obvious; not to do this will mean a fail has to be recorded for the whole project no matter what the quality of the other work. The central and particular reasons for thorough preparation are.
Formulation -Unless the Literature Review is thorough you may NOT be able to properly explore and formulate the presenting problem.
Definition -Unless the Literature Review is thorough you will NOT be able to work out what primary or secondary data needed because as a researchers you simply will not know enough. Think of it like this; your topic is VoIP and you decide to use a questionnaire to gather primary data but if you know nothing about this topic area then how will you formulate or even know what data to search for.
Processing -Unless the Literature Review is thorough making you a topic area expert there is no way you will be able to process and interpret the data -you simply will not know enough. Think of it like this. I send you all my collected primary data on the use of Emotional Intelligence in improving IT desk support will be largely meaningless unless one is an expert in this area so you CANNOT generate any outcome from it.
Systematic and Systemic -In all learning there is always an element of serendipity, but whilst it is important to recognise that leaning can occur at any time or place a good learner will take serious steps to be systematic so their work is structured and organized rather than haphazard. They will also see clearly that their work has to be systemic as well so that every part contributes to and helps every other part. The place where these two ideas show themselves most clearly is in the literatures review where your knowledge is on display and readers can judge if it is systematic, organised and structured with more than paying lip service to it being systemic or is it haphazard betraying a poor and careless mind or a lack of real effort.
 

Common and serious errors
Currency – the sources listed are out of date (generally meaning over 10 years old)
Coverage – the sources listed give only limited or very limited coverage of the topic area and implies you have not thought about all relevant aspects of your topic area.
Primary Sources – this means journals, position or research papers and works of that kind. We do allow you to use books here but once you get beyond that into general Internet pages or magazines then those sources will be mostly be disregarded and point to serious inadequacies in your preparation. #p#分页标题#e#
Displacement -the review is about preparation of your mind for the topic area not the problem scenario. However, what many students do is introduce material from the problem or use the review to talk about what they will do in the project but such action will be regarded as a complete failure because it implies you have no real knowledge of the topic area.
Cosmetic – this implies that your review reveals such a shallow and superficial level of knowledge that it is totally unacceptable at this level. Reviews displaying this characteristic work at the level you might find in a newspaper or cheap magazine, the kind of information that everyone knows whether they are working in that area, street level knowledge if you like or the kind of knowledge described in the next bullet point.
Common Knowledge and Obvious -Quoting or paraphrasing material that is either obvious or common knowledge implies that you have not looked at the sources beyond the first page or forward.
Poor English – unfortunately this sometimes occurs and it will almost always mean failure because if an assessor cannot make sense of what is being said they cannot give any credit for it.
Not focused – this occurs when it is evident that the Review does not properly deal with the relevant topic area and wanders off into something else as if its only purpose is to fill up the pages with something, anything at all that sounds remotely applicable. For example, a recent project was failed because the subject area was paper usage and IT technology that might be used to reduce it. However, in the review the student only talked about TAM, the technology acceptance model and with virtually nothing on paper usage or modern technologies that might be used to replace it.
Copying without comment – very often we see review where all a student has done is copy or paraphrase everything he or she has found. This is not necessarily plagiarism because correct reference might have been used. The problem is you cannot review (examine, check, evaluate etc) by just copying what an author has said: you have to comment on it in some way: agree with what is being said explaining why, suggest adjustments to what has been said, compares what has been said with other sources and so on. It should be obvious that anyone at all can go and copy or paraphrase what they have found – but there is no intellectual effort in such an enterprise so a review like that will be regarded as next to worthless.
 

Suggested Format for Literature Review Outline Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Here are some ideas to use when constructing the outline. Please be aware that the template has very limited space so you must be concise.
Topic Area – writes a brief description of your topic area; DO NOT get this confused this with what you will do in your study or what the setting for the problem is. The topic is about what you will research it the literature, usually before you even start your study proper. #p#分页标题#e#
Originality Theme -the review must have something in it that is original to you and based usually on an idea or viewpoint of your own that connects the materials that you find. If there is no originality then all you have done is tell us what someone else said without comment or critique and frankly that is regarded as next to worthless in research.
Content Map – list 5-10 sub-headings and associated very brief descriptions that will be used to structure your review. It may help you to think about general strands such as: organisational, administrative, functional, social, technological, cultural, ethical and so on or some other structure best suited to your topic; but it must be progressive and logically take you through the topic area (application and technological). This is about giving your readers a focused, evaluative and lucid discourse on your chosen topic area. So possible specific areas might be:
Area of application – examines where a particular technology might be used.
History – it might be useful to review the way a business area enveloped or the way a technology has been constructed or used. This needs care as often this kind of material is often of little value (because it is always out of date). For example, if you were looking at credit card security one might talk about the birth of the credit card but it is obvious that kind of information is of very little value.
Relevant definition/theories – these might be worth listing and or exploring unless they are regarded as common knowledge or just plain obvious.
The technology -show that you really understand and know what it is and how it works in practice.
Strengths and Weaknesses -show that you understand that every technology has certain benefits and drawbacks and what they might be in your specific case. Technical difficulties -show that you appreciate the technical difficulties associated with a technology as far as
use, support or integration might be concerned Statistics -show that you are aware of take up rates or failure rates and future trends Support -consider supporting IT infrastructures, systems, applications, support needs and training Documents and Tools -You might look at international standards, codes of practice, manufacturer data sheets or
support tools
Case Studies and Research Papers -you might look for case study materials for an evaluation of the technology or the area of application as well as any research papers in the topic area. Psychological -consider user needs and profiles Costs -associated with technology introduction, uses or enhancement through its full logistical life cycle
Some outline Literature sub-topic Review Headings Here are samples that were provided by students. The first one is a full sample so you can see what we might look for and the remainder just outline the content maps which is often the hardest part to do. You may find that as you dig deeper your ideas and focus changes, that is fine as long as what you then write is consistent, logical and informative in an evaluative manner. These examples they are all written in slightly different ways but that is not important as long as you are clear and it’s obvious you have covered the topic area well. #p#分页标题#e#
 
Topic Area – real estate in the UAE and the IT that supports it
Originality theme – my theme centres round the idea that Real Estate is changing rapidly because of widespread use of the Internet implying the effective removable of national boarders and therefore the business model may have to change as well as the IT systems that support it.
 

Content Map (notice how it merges and covers the technology and the application area)
What is real estate? (Covering both commercial, private and Government areas) Real Estate business, it structure and organisation (you might focus on one sector or several) Personnel and customers Business Planning and policies The changing nature of real estate (looks at some stats and peer into the future) Privatization/liberalization in national policies Real estate codes of practice and legislation Real Estate regulation and standards IT systems and their place in real estate The place for IT training Existing research in this area
Conclusion – Real estate is changing rapidly and will continue to do so perhaps at an increased pace with virtually no national boundaries and it is only possible to maintain such a business by the efficient and ethical use of modern IT technology and communications so that the necessary transaction speeds are in place and the whole process is transparent.
 

Literature Sources Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

Bouwman, H et. al. (2005). Information and Communication Technology in Organizations. Great Britain: Sage Publications
Dehning, B and Stratopoulos, T. (2002). Determinants of sustainable competitive advantage due to an IT-enabled strategy. Journal of Strategic Information Science. 12 (2003), 7-28 etc In the remaining examples I just show some sample content maps as these are really the way you show that you have covered the topic area well.
 
 

Content Map
IT Qualifications and their Purpose IT Qualification authorities: academic and manufacturer based Defining and verifying suitable hiring criteria for IT staff General Industry based overview of needs and trends IT Skill benchmarking process related to insufficient skills to face business risk Industry Certifications and their contribution in bridging the IT Skills gap Industry based Qualifications; their nature and purpose IT Training needed to meet job demand ITIL as Best Practice to improve IT Staff skills Defining IT Skills Gap in organizations Efficiency of IT Staff screening and Hiring Process Qualifications and business needs SFIA as Framework to identify job description KPI and baseline skills assignment Mismatch between actual IT skills and planned strategic business goals
 
 

Content Map
My review will cover all of the following points in preparation for this study. Therefore my main topic headings are: the technology itself, its good points its weaknesses, its area of application, what application software might be needed, technological difficulties, what IT infrastructures are required to support it, what international standards there are, what are the costs involved, what kind of support is needed, what kind of training might be required, psychology of use and security and possible impact on customer privacy #p#分页标题#e#
 
 

Content Map
Scene setting and a short statistical review Philanthropy and Fundraising Charitable status and regulation including tax concerns Ethical consideration in use if funds and fund collection methods Fundraising methods: cash, gifts in kind, sponsorship etc Fund raising campaigns Campaigns: annual giving programmes, capital campaigns, major gifts, etc Fund raising cycle Fund raising audits and methods of evaluation Donors and giving behaviours plus motivation Impact of IT on Fund Raising IT based fundraising Critical issues in IT for fund raising Possible IT infrastructures and systems IT management and its relation to fundraising
 
 

Content Map
Introduction to software defects and testing
Definition of keywords and terms identified above.
Software defects and its implications to business.
Categories and causes of defects in applications software.
Discussion on the importance of software testing and the delivery of quality software.
Association of defect prevention with the software testing phases and models.
Development method and the psychology of attitudes to testing.

Management in development Metrics and Measurement Supporting IT infrastructures Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/

 
These are just words or phrases that encapsulate a major theme in your work and in general look for somewhere between 5 and 7 keywords – if you have less you may not be adequately identifying key ideas and if too many it implies that you have no theme at all so list everything..
Keywords – software testing, software quality, testing model, test strategy, defect analysis, defect prevention.
Keywords -zero defects, Testing Maturity Model (TMM), V-Model, verification and validation (V & V).
 

Plagiarism
All your work will be automatically checked for plagiarism and if it is detected I will inform you that you have been referred to the course leader for possible disciplinary action as plagiarism is regarded as cheating and if detected may go as far as resulting in your exclusion. To guide you as to what than means and what we consider as proof of wrong doing the rule is very simple.
If 6 or more consecutive words are extracted from a source they must be acknowledged and 10 consecutive words that are unacknowledged will be regarded as proof of plagiarism.
Be aware that you can copy, paraphrase, summarise or other appropriate mechanism related to the use of another author's work if has been properly acknowledged in accordance with normal scholarly conventions.
Be aware that putting something in your own words is plagiarism also and is just as much an offence as exact copying if it is not acknowledged.
Be aware that if you fill up your work with quotes or paraphrases and properly cite all of it, it may still be regarded as worthless. That is, it is not ultimately how much you use of another authors work that matters or correct citations because the real value is in what YOU do with it and how you comment, explain and expound it as well as introduce your own ideas viewpoints to structure what is being said. #p#分页标题#e#
 
 

Introduction
This is a very practical element in the assessment and it is intended to show how you will organise and structure the work so that it comes to completion in good time. It is essentially derived by looking at your objectives and resources and then working out all the practical steps needed and how long they are likely to take.
 

Caution
The minimum duration for a project is 18 weeks and out of some 600 that have completed only 2 students managed to complete in that time scale. Be practical and sensible, make a plan that you know you can keep to and don’t be over¬ambitious especially if you are in full-time employment.
 

Basic Structure
Every project has a similar structure to its tasks that might be summarised as follows when I have assumed a something around the minimum duration (though that would almost never apply). Notice that all we require at this stage is a clear statement of a task and its expected duration or you may use actual dates of you wish but we do not recommend it as there is no way of knowing project start dates at this stage. Finally, please be aware of what you are doing, you are stating a task at each stage.
Preparation including the literature review and the design phases (3-6 weeks)
Data Collection (3 – 4 weeks)
Data pre-processing and outcome processing (2 – 4 weeks)
Evaluation (2 weeks)
Final reporting (4 weeks) Unfortunately some students simply copy this, add in a few dates or times but without a single real thought about their project as if that will impress anyone with their care and commitment to thinking it all through. For the assessors this is easy to see because what is often written would apply to any projects at all so then it’s obvious so that no thinking has been involved because there is nothing that gives the plan a context. Finally, it is unwise to have more than 20 task and good plans normally are based on around 6 to 10 tasks. 
 Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis http://www.ukthesis.org/
 

Common Errors
Cursory – the plan is so brief that it is impractical.
Not Contextualised – here we seem plan that might have all the features and stages but without a single hint even as to what the project is about.
Unrealistic Timing – the assessors will look at your objectives and what is written in the project plan to see if you are being practical and rationally assessing how long an activity might take. For example, if you say you will interview X people and do it all in one week you plan will simply show you have no sense of how long significant actives take – in short you will be thought to be guessing.
Student Examples
 

(1) Weeks 1 to 30
Background study of Maersk and general importation operations (1 week)#p#分页标题#e#
Identify and build a model of essential steps in the current import documentation process (4 weeks)
In depth study of importation procedures, laws, regulations, tariffs (3 weeks)
Identify of points of delay within the documentation process model (2 weeks)
Design questionnaire and interview questions (1 week)
Distribute questionnaires, carry out interviews and collate findings (4 weeks)
Analyse survey findings, produce an evaluation report (2 weeks)
Explore solution-routes (8 weeks)
Prepare recommendations (3 weeks)
Presentation, Review and discussion with Management (2 weeks)

Assessor Comments – a good start but with only the slightest hint at a context. The steps and durations look reasonable but where is the literature review, evaluation process or writing up the report for example?
 

(2) Stages:
1-3 weeks -take the task of doing the research on related literature concerning information technology in the world of financial audit. The research will be done in university libraries and on online
3 -6 weeks -designing and formulating of questionnaires needed for the survey proper will be created. At the same time after finishing the questionnaires the survey proper will be done on target population
6 -7 weeks -the researcher will do the task of conducting the interview
7-10 weeks --every gathered and obtained primary and secondary data and information will be collated and consolidated in a graphical and tabular form
11 weeks --the task of analysis and interpretation of the primary and secondary information will be performed with the goal and objective of arriving at a clear and concise understanding of the study which will used for the formulation of the recommendation
Assessor comments – all we have is a description of certain activities that go on in EVERY project and no one in the world would have any idea what this project is about and so as a plan it scores ZERO.
(3) A brief outline of my project plan
The intention is to start in the third week of April and produce the outcome in the fourth week of November 2008.

Further Literature Search and investigating the project idea/theme of eGovernment in (April and May 2008) Preparatory work of data collection/designing interview questionnaires, other documentations and visits plan based on FCCIA needs (Chamber of Commerce) (May and June 2008)
Categorizing data collection process and prioritizing approaches (June 2008)
Consulting FCCIA senior Management to present my actual plan, interview schedule, and to schedule visits and
interviews (July and August 2008)

Administering the data collection process (August and September 2008)
Categorizing and sorting out the data collected, filing documents. (September and October 2008)
Preparing collected data into a structured form in preparation for generation of the final outcome (October and

November 2008)
Submitting the final outcome (November 2008)#p#分页标题#e#
Assessor Comments – this is a good start with some contextualisation but it just needs a little extra clarity to make it

acceptable. For example, what can it mean to ”Consulting FCCIA senior Management to present...“ or in what sense does one submit the outcome to anyone? Finally, where is evaluation and generation of conclusions, preparation of the final document etc