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You must submit a final report worth 70% of the total project mark, which should cover the overall project findings and achievements. The report should not repeat the contents of the interim report, but may refer to it and expand on it. You will also have to submit a complete set of the deliverables developed for the project, as specified in your initial plan (including any source code and soft system models). This involves the development of some tangible piece of software, hardware, system design or theoretical result. It need not necessarily be a usable finished product. Instead it could be, for example, an extension to an existing system or a prototype built as part of a feasibility study. Deliverables do not necessarily have to be programs, but could be in non-executable form, for example, an SSM conceptual model. The final report forms part II and the deliverables form part III of the project. Both parts must be submitted towards the end of the second semester. See your project details in PATS for the submission deadline.
Please see your initial plan in which you should have clearly outlined the deliverables for the final report. Your supervisor and/or moderator may have left additional comments on your plan on PATS to tell you whether these deliverables are suitable and what they expect for the final report. Check the comments on PATS for your report. Your deliverables may be adjusted based on your findings for the interim report and additional changes introduces since then. If so, justify this in the report. Also discuss carefully with your supervisor what you should be including in the final report.
The final report should be at most 20,000 words long. General guidance on project report structures is available in Arranging Material and Structuring the Project Report. A possible structure for your final report is:
| Title Page | Support | |
| Abstract | ||
| Acknowledgements | ||
| Table of Contents | ||
| Table of Figures | ||
| 1. | Introduction | Main body |
| 2. | Design | |
| 3. | Implementation | |
| 3. | Results and Evaluation | |
| 4. | Future Work | |
| 5. | Conclusions | |
| 6. | Reflection on Learning | |
| Glossary | Support | |
| Table of Abbreviations | ||
| Appendices | ||
| References |
The Introduction should relate the final report to the interim report and discuss any changes, extensions or new insights since the interim report to the material. In some cases this may also go into a separate section if the material is quite extensive.
If you are implementing a piece of software the “Design” and “Implementation” sections are quite suitable. For a project addressing a “softer” problem these may instead be “Application of Selected Approach” and “Deliverables from Selected Approach”. If you intend to compare algorithms it may on “Implementation of Algorithms” and “Experiment Design”. If you intend to design and and analyse an algorithm it could be “Alternative Designs and Final Algorithm” and “Implementation”. Do not take any of these section headings as fixed, but instead consider them as a guide and choose the structure and headings best suited to your project.
Then present the results of your work and evaluate these results with suitable evidence, discussing the advantages and weaknesses of your approach. The Conclusions section should conclude your project overall and your report should end with a reflection on learning.
After the submission deadline your supervisor and moderator assess the final report independently of each other. In addition a project viva will be held to demonstrate and discuss your project after the complete project has been submitted. The format of the viva varies depending on the project, but generally consists of a demonstration or presentation of the deliverables followed by a discussion of various questions from the supervisor and moderator relating to the project.
A mark out of 70 is given on the final report, representing 70% of the total mark. The marks awarded for the interim report and initial plan will be carried over from the first semester, and will be added to the marks given for the final report to give a total mark from each assessor. If their total marks differ by less than 10, the final mark for the project will be the average between the supervisor's and moderator's total mark. If the difference is 10 or greater, they meet together to discuss the reasons for the difference, and try to come to an agreement. If they cannot agree, a third marker will be appointed. You will receive the total marks with your other module results.
The criteria for assessing the final report are listed below. Please read these carefully as it will help you to see what your assessors will be looking for in your report. Also take into account what you promised to produce for the final report in your initial plan, and your supervisor's and moderator's comments on this on PATS. How far you managed to produce these deliverables is part of the final report assessment.
You can resubmit your final report at any time until the deadline and your supervisor and moderator will not be able to mark this or make any comments online before the deadline. Please discuss your final report with your supervisor at your regular meetings. You can upload parts of the report onto PATS so that your supervisor can look at these (or give the report in any other way to your supervisor). Just upload the files in the file upload section and your supervisor and moderator can see these there (you can, but do not have to submit them until you have the final version).
Your supervisor and moderator will assess your final report according to the following criteria:
on the following scale: