Project checklist

This document lists many of the things you should check before submitting your project
report for assessment.

Report content

●​ Does your report identify what the focus of your project is?
●​ Has your report got an introduction?
●​ Does the introduction describe the problem and its background?
●​ Does the introduction specify the objectives of (and, where appropriate, constraints
on) your project?
●​ Does the introduction describe the structure of the rest of the report?
●​ Has your report got a literature review?
●​ Does the literature review show that you read widely and thoroughly in your topic
area?
●​ Does the review show critical judgement for what is good/bad, relevant/irrelevant,
reliable/unreliable, important/unimportant of what you read?
●​ Does your report describe the problem domain in sufficient detail for the reader to
understand the points you make about your project?
●​ Does your report discuss the requirements for the artefact you built?
●​ Does your report discuss the methods and processes that you used?
●​ Does your report describe alternative approaches you considered for your solution?
●​ Does your report describe what you did?
●​ Does your report describe how you did it?
●​ Does your report describe why you did it that way?
●​ Does your report show that you have shown good judgement in the design decisions
you made?
●​ Are your judgements supported by evidence?
●​ Does your report state clearly what parts of your solution are fully working, what
parts are partly working, what parts are not working, and what parts have not been
implemented at all?
●​ Does your report describe how you tested your artifact?
●​ Does your report discuss the tools you used and your experience of them?
●​ Does your report describe the problems you encountered along the way and how
you solved/avoided them?
●​ Does your report show evidence of evaluation of your work and the methods used?
●​ Does your report show which requirements have been met and which have not?
●​ Does your report show how your project was managed?
●​ Has your report got a conclusion?
●​ Does the conclusion show which objectives were met and which weren't?
●​ Does the conclusion discuss possibilities for future work in your project's area?
●​ Does the conclusion place your work into a wider context (e.g. by showing its value in
 other areas)?
●​ Does the conclusion state whether the project has met its objectives?
●​ Does the conclusion reflect on how you conducted the project (e.g. what you would
do differently if you had to do it again; how it integrated with your other studies)?
●​ Does your report make clear what is innovative/original/new about your work?
●​ Does your report make absolutely clear what you have done, what you have adapted
from elsewhere, and what you have taken from elsewhere unaltered?
●​ Does your report distinguish unambiguously between work that you have done and
work done by other people?
●​ Does the report distinguish clearly between work done as part of the project and
work done prior to the project starting?
●​ Does your report's contents address every key marking category?

Report format

●​ Are all ideas mentioned in your report easily identifiable by any reader as either:
o​ "common knowledge"
o​ your own
o​ other people's?
●​ Are all ideas that are "other people's" properly cited using an approved format?
●​ Do all citations appear in your list of references at the back of your report?
●​ Do all items in your list of references appear as citations?
●​ Do all items in your list of references provide all the sufficient bibliographic details for
someone to be able to find them in a library?
●​ Have you included appropriate diagrams/figures/illustrations/tables and are they
properly numbered?
●​ Have you used numbered/bulleted lists appropriately?
●​ Is the length of your report within the guidelines, or so close that no one will notice?
●​ Does each chapter start with an introductory section that explains what it will
describe?
●​ Does each chapter end with a summary identifying what has been achieved?
●​ Does each chapter naturally flow with the one before it and the one after it?
●​ Have you included in appendices the following (where appropriate):
●​ Requirements document(s)
●​ Design document(s)
●​ Screen shot(s)
●​ Source code
●​ Internal documentation
●​ User documentation
●​ Test results
●​ Evaluation results
●​ Questionnaires
●​ Survey results
 ●​ Glossary of terms
●​ Have you included whatever acknowledgements are appropriate?
●​ Have you bound in a copy of your project specification (PJ45M only).

Report details

●​ Does your report have a title page conforming to Departmental project regulations?
●​ Does your report have an abstract on the title page?
●​ Does the abstract accurately summarise all of the report, not just parts of it?
●​ Does your report have a table of contents and is it correct?
●​ Could a reader use the table of contents to quickly find a section they were looking
for?
●​ Are all pages of your report numbered (in a single sequence)?
●​ Do all chapters start on a new page?
●​ Do all appendices start on a new page?
●​ Are all chapters, sections and sub-sections numbered and are the numbers correct?
●​ Are all appendices identified by letter?
●​ Are all headings in a consistent format (font, size, bold/italic, etc.) for their level?
●​ Have you removed words like "draft" or "preliminary version" from headers/footers?
●​ Is the main text of your report in 12pt type?
●​ Is the text associated with diagrams or figures in at least 9pt type?
●​ Is the text consistent in its use of bold, italics, font face, font size, etc.?
●​ Is the main text of your report in a proportional font such as Times-Roman or
Arial/Helvetica?
●​ Are all program fragments in a fixed-width font such as Courier?
●​ Are all margins at least 20mm?

Preparation for submission

●​ Is your supervisor happy with the content and structure of your report?
●​ Have you printed off two copies of the report?
●​ Have you ensured that the pages are in the right order and none are missing?
●​ Have you included any separately produced material such as diagrams or
appendices?
●​ Have you picked up two sets of blank covers from the administrative office?
●​ Have you printed your name, title and project unit code on both copies of the front
cover?
●​ Have you bound both copies of the report?
●​ Have you prepared an electronic copy of your report for Moodle?
●​ Have you completed a project submission form, including the plagiarism declaration?

Artefact (engineering projects only)

●​ Is it clear who the author of each component of your artefact is?