A GUIDE TO PROJECT WORK

Introduction

Welcome to this Guide. It will provide you all, you to know to produce a project of high
academic quality. It will also enable you to produce a business report of a professional
standard. The project report is an essential part of the PG Program in Management, hence
we have allotted a full semester to the research involved in the submission of the project.
It is designed to allow the student to demonstrate his/her knowledge of the academic
content of the course through its practical application in the business world. It is
important to stress here that you must make use of course concepts, models & theories.
You are not writing a mere description. An intelligent person who has not taken a PG
Program in Management could do that. You have to put together an academic piece of
work, your model is an academic journal but not newspaper. Always check what you
write, because what you write is viewed through the course and not just common sense.

Topic Selection

The student has to select his/her own topic. The criteria for selecting a topic are:
• Specialization: The topic must be related to the specialization of the student.
• Originality: Your work must be yours alone and must be original. You must
certainly take ideas from elsewhere, but be sure that you develop them in a way
unique to suit yourself and the thesis that you are doing.
• Company Specific: The thesis must be done in an organization or any of its
departments. The thesis must be able to conclude to the organization in which it has
been done, whether what they have been doing is the best method of doing that
activity, or are there any better methods. And, if so, what these methods are and their
justifications. The name of the organization must be specified in the Title.
• You can do the study in the organization that you are working/ have worked/
intend to work and can take the advice of your senior to help you select the topic.

Other factors to Consider:

• The topic of the project report must be of your own interest for you to be able
to sustain interest in the project report until its completion.
• It will help if you have prior knowledge of the area in which you intend to do
the study. You must have the knowledge of a certain industry through employment,
for example.
• If your topic selection is one that is popular, then you will find two issues.
First, there will be plenty of material available. Second, it will be difficult to be
original.
• It is a good idea to link project report to your future plans/ ambitions. This will
be a useful piece of research for you and it will also demonstrate to your potential
employers your enthusiasm and knowledge.
 • Remember that you are restricted in a number of ways, such as resources,
time, equipments, etc.

Planning the Project:

You will find it necessary to plan ahead in order to complete the project report in the time
allowed. There are a number of ways of doing this but they all share certain features.

• You must work out precisely how much time you have. This means you
should schedule your work backwards to be able to finish your project report in due
time.
• You must identify crucial dates and measures demonstrating that your
progress is satisfactory by those days. You already have some- the date for sending
your proposal to the institution and the date for final submission. The other dates will
emerge after you start your research. If, for example, you plan a questionnaire, there
will be a day after which you will not be able to include returned forms because it
will lead to a serious delay. This must be included in your planning. Other examples
would include the day by which you must finish your literature review or the first
draft. Exactly what the events are can only be known after you start work.

Project Synopsis:

Draft Title: This should convey the general issue that interests you. The title should
not be generic in nature and should imply that the research is being made to be able to
make certain conclusions. The title should also indicate the organization in which the
research is being carried out (titles of earlier projects done by students have been attached
for your information).

Aims and Objectives of the Research: The aims and objectives of the research should
be clearly mentioned. Eg. What exactly is the aim of this research and what would be the
end result etc.

Methodology: You should be specific about the methods you are going to use. Also
make it clear why you are choosing a particular method.

Detailed Plan of Work: You should submit a plan showing how you intend to complete
the project report on time. This will include any bar charts, etc.

References: Be as detailed about this as possible. It is understood that you will still be
developing this part of your research, but it helps us understand the direction that you are
heading.
 Format of Project Report

03 copies of the Project Report (04 Copies if Company Requires One) need to be
submitted to IBMR in the format, as follows:

1. The full content of the project report must be bound together so that the pages
cannot be removed or replaced. The format and the rear boards shall have sufficient
rigidity to support the weight of the work when standing upright.

2. The project must be hard bound in ‘Black’ with the lettering on the cover in
‘Gold’ [Spiral Binding will not be accepted].

3. The outside of the front board should show in Gold, in at least 24 points type, the
title of the project, the name of the candidate, the award and the year of submitted.
The format of the front cover has been attached for your reference.

4. The spine should also show the name, the award and the year.

5. Text pages should be printed on one side of the paper, mainly in 1.5 or double
spacing and pages numbered at the bottom centre. Margins should be 2” on the left
and 1” on the right.

6. The declaration must be duly signed by the student.

7. There must also be a declaration duly signed by the Research Guide.

8. The project report must comprise of 150-180- pages.

 PROJECT STRUCTURE
TITLE What is it about? Should accurately describe what the
report is about and must include the
name of the organization. It is better to
say ‘Report on staff problems in the
canteen’ instead of just ‘Canteen’
AKNOWLEDGMENTS Who has helped you? Try to be selective about this. The fact
that your pet dog gave you comfort
during your work is not really
important.
SUMMARY What are the key This should be written at the end but
findings & should appear at the beginning of the
recommendations? report and be very brief, so that the
recipient:
(i) Will read it (even if he or she is
very busy) and be put in the picture
immediately without having to read
through the whole report.
(ii) Can decide what has to be done,
Ex, read it through later (if you’ve
managed to interest him or her) or
send it to someone else for action.
CONTENTS What’s in it? List all the section of the main body of
your report and show the page number
they start on. This should be neatly
done with page numbers ordered in a
column to the right of the list of
sections.
LIST OF TABLES, What else is in it? Using the same system as for contents,
FIGURES AND show the location of Tables, Figures,
APPENDICES and Appendices.
INTRODUCTION Why was it written? Can include the brief reasons for the
What is the report being thought necessary, who
background? asked for it, and any terms of
reference.
MAIN BODY What facts were Beware assuming that your reader
discovered? already knows the facts. Your main
How were they chapters should include:
obtained? Literature review
Methodology
Results and Observations.
Discussions.
CONCLUSIONS What pictures has Sum up the main arguments. Do not
emerged? introduce new material into your
conclusion. If you have numbered
each paragraph, refer to them by no.
RECOMMENDATIONS What action is now This is the ‘cutting edge’ of the whole
required? report- what it all leads up to- which
should be set out clearly and
succinctly what needs to be done; the
pros and the cons should be included
and the implications too.
BIBLIOGRAPHY / What books, articles etc. These should be listed in alphabetical
REFERENCES Have you used? order by authors’ names. A
Print / Web / etc bibliography lists all the work of
interest including those mentioned in
 CONTENTS

Page No.

1. TITLE…………………………………………………………….

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………..

4. CONTENTS……………………………………………………..
5. LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND APPENDICES……….

6. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………

7. MAIN BODY……………………………………………………

8. FINDINGS CONCLUSIONS…………………………………..

9. RECOMMENDATIONS……………………………………….

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY/ REFERENCES……………………………

11. APPENDICES…………………………………………………..

Note: Please use separate index sheets for all chapters. Each chapter should start from a new page.