Fakulti Pengurusan Maklumat

Universiti Teknologi MARA

Project Guidelines for IMS552

(Information Systems Management)
(Group Project)

The implementation of Information System in an organization.

This document is intended to provide guidelines and expectations for IMS552 group project
advised by the lecturer. The guidelines given herein reflect lecturers’ advising expectations.

Students are required to visit an organization and to study the system applied and implemented.
For this purpose, student may need to have an interview with personnel in charge, observe and
gain information system activities within the organization.

The following guidelines are expected to be adhered to by all members of the project team.

 Each member of the group should spend time (hours) per week on project work.
 Students are expected to research background material for the project by reviewing
books, journals, magazines, online resources as well as visiting organization or industry
(where applicable).

 A well-written final report is required

 A well-organized final presentation is expected. This is likely to be done at week 13 in

the lecture room, but may occur at some other time (to be announced).
 All group members share responsibility for the project's success. Each team member
should understand the entire project and should help with all weekly progress reports, and
final report.
 Honesty and integrity are essential in all work. All work submitted must be original and
all sources quoted. Minimize direct quotations, but when needed be sure to indicate
which material is a quotation and provide a proper reference.
  The success of your project will be directly proportional to the time and effort you spend
on it

1. Project Grading

All group members will usually receive the same grade. If a group member is not pulling his or
her weight, it reflects badly on everyone. If this situation cannot be worked out among
yourselves, be sure to discuss it with the lecturer/supervisor concerned.

Upon completion of the project, students will receive an overall project grade. It is important to
note that this grade reflects not only the final products of the project (results, report, etc), but also
the process by which they were attained. No last-minute effort will turn a mediocre project effort
into an A.

2. The Project Report

Papers you submit, should be well organized, thoughtful, proof-read and spell-checked!
This part of the assessment is worth about 15% of the final mark.

The project report is an extremely important aspect of the project. It serves to show what you
have achieved and try to ensure that it contains the following elements: -

 Introduction of project

 Organization background

 Corporate vision, mission, objective, goal

 Organization structure chart

 Functional description of departments/divisions/units

 Role and function of departments/divisions/units

 Data used in the organization

 List of Information systems

 Brief explanation, function and objective of each IS

 Types of IS
 Details of Selected IS

 Information system background

 Functional description of IS

 IS components

 IS activities

 Hardware and software configuration

 Information System problem

Performance of IS

 Strength and weaknesses of IS

 Opportunities and threats of IS

 Generate and evaluate alternatives

 Recommendation and action plan

 Conclusion

Don't make the mistake of leaving the write-up to the last minute. Ideally you should produce the
bulk of the report as you go along and use the last week or two to bring it together into a coherent
document.
The physical layout and formatting of the report is also important, and yet is very often neglected.
A tidy, well laid out and consistently formatted document makes for easier reading and is
suggestive of a careful and professional attitude towards its preparation.
Remember that quantity does not automatically guarantee quality. Conciseness, clarity and
elegance are invaluable qualities in report writing, just as they are in programming, and will be
rewarded appropriately.

 Title page This should include the University, faculty and program’s name, project title
and the name of the author of the report, group members, course code, date etc. You can
also list the name of your lecturer if you wish.
 Abstract The abstract is a very brief summary of the report's contents. It should be about
half a page long. Somebody unfamiliar with your project should have a good idea of what
 it's about, having read the abstract alone and will know whether it will be of interest or
not.
 Acknowledgements It is usual to thank those individuals who have provided particularly
useful advice, assistance, technical or otherwise, during your project.
 Contents page This should list the main chapters and (sub)sections of your report.
Choose self-explanatory chapter and section titles and use double spacing for clarity. If
possible you should include page numbers indicating where each chapter/section begins.
Try to avoid too many levels of subheading - three is sufficient.
 Introduction This is one of the most important components of the report. It should begin
with a clear statement of what the project is about so that the nature and scope of the
project can be understood by a lay reader. It should summarize everything you set out to
achieve and provide a clear summary of the project's background and relevancy.
The introduction should set the scene for the project and should provide the reader with a
summary of the key things to look out for in the remainder of the report.
It is sometimes useful to state the main objectives of the project as part of the
introduction.
 Background The background section can be included as part of the introduction but is
usually better as a separate chapter.
 Avoid plagiarism: if you take another person's work as your own and do not cite your
sources of information/inspiration you are being dishonest; in other words you are
cheating. When referring to other pieces of work, cite the sources where they are referred
to or used, rather than just listing them at the end.
 Evaluation Be warned that many projects fall down through poor evaluation. It is
extremely important that you evaluate what you have done both in absolute terms and in
comparison with existing techniques, software, hardware etc. This might involve
quantitative evaluation, for example based on numerical results, performance etc. or
something more qualitative such as expressibility, functionality, ease-of-use etc. At some
point you should also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of what you have done.
It is important to understand that there is no such thing as a perfect project. Even the very
best pieces of work have their limitations and you are expected to provide a proper
critical appraisal of what you have done.
 Conclusions The project's conclusions should list the things which have been learnt as a
result of the work you have done. For example, "The use of overloading in C++ provides
a very elegant mechanism for transparent parallelization of sequential programs", or "The
 overheads of linear-time n-body algorithms makes them computationally less efficient
than O(n log n) algorithms for systems with less than 100000 particles".
 References: This consists of a list of all the books, articles, manuals etc. used in the
project and referred to in the report. You should provide enough information to allow the
reader to find the source. A weakness of many reports is inadequate citation of a source
of information. Each entry should list the author(s) and title of the piece of work and
should give full details of where it can be found.
 Appendix The appendices contain information which is peripheral to the main body of
the report. Information typically included are things like parts of the code, tables, proofs,
test cases, brochures or any other material which would break up the theme of the text if
it appeared in situ. Photos also add a lot to the story you are telling. You should try to
bind all your material in a single volume if possible.

3. Project Presentation

One of the most important skills which the individual project aims to assess is your ability to
communicate your ideas and work. As part of the assessment you will be required to give a
presentation of your final project.

The assessment is worth about 05% of the final mark.

Each presentation will be timetabled for between 20 and 30 minutes including a question and
answer session, where appropriate. The presentation is not assessed separately but is a
compulsory component of the project. The objective of the presentation is to find out exactly
what you have done and to ensure that you get an accurate mark that is consistent with other
projects - it is not designed as an opportunity to let you down!

4. When are the papers due?

All papers are due by ____, 2015 (week 13) – to be announced.  Please submit your papers to the
supervisor/lecturer concerned on or before the presentation day accordingly.