BCS HIGHER EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

September 2012

EXAMINERS REPORT

Professional Projects

ExaminersReport

Statistics
Approximately160projectproposalswerereceivedandprocessed,mainlyforprojectsatthePGD
level.
Inthiscycle,143projectsweresubmittedforassessment.Therewere108atthePGDleveland35at
theDiplomalevel.
Followingmoderation,resultswereasfollows.(Lastyearsfiguresareinparentheses.)
Fail Pass Credit Distinction
PGD 36(7) 56(38) 15(4) 1(0)
Diploma 18(29) 16(6) 1(1) 0(0)

CommentsonProjectProposals
Mostproposalssuccessfullydescribethescopeandleveloftheintendedwork,allowingtheexaminers
tobeconfidentthattheproposalprovidesthebasisofanacceptableprojectsubmission.Most
proposalsareforsoftwaredevelopment,somefordesignprojectsandsomeforhardwareor
networkingprojects.
Goodproposalshavedescribed
o briefly,theobjectivesofthesystem
o thedifferentclassesofusersofthesystem
o whatthesystemallowseachclassofusertodo
o howthesystemhasbeenshowntobefitforitsintendedpurposes(tested)
o briefly,thehardware/software/environmentofthesystem
o briefly,thetimescalefortheprojectwork.
Therecommendedwordcount(ofapproximately500words)hasbeensignificantlyexceededinsome
proposals.
Whereanexistingsystemistobereplaced,thishassometimesbeendescribedintoogreatdetail,not
leavingthecandidatesufficientopportunitytodescribetheabovepointsinappropriatedetail.
WheretheproposedauthenticatorhasnotbeenaBCSmember,aCVhasbeensubmitted.Examiners
havebeenlookingforaboutfiveyearsexperienceinamanagerialorsupervisoryrole,andnotallCVs
haveincludeddetailsofthisexperience.Toobtainrelevantadviceandavoidwastedwork,candidates
shouldchoosetheirauthenticatorcarefully.
Someproposalshavenotbeensubmittedintheapprovedfileformats.Forinstance,embedding
imagesinsideWordorPDFfileshasmadeitdifficultforexaminerstocommentonthecontents.
Additionalfiles(forexample,projectproposalsinotherformsasaddedattachments)havemadesome
submissionsdifficulttoassess.Candidatesshouldnotsubmitadditionalfiles.

CommentsonProjectsSubmitted

Despitetickingalltheboxesinthechecklistrelatingtoobligatorycontent,somecandidateshave
submittedprojectswithmissingsections.Theseprojectshaveautomaticallyfailed.Theinclusionof
pagereferencestothesesectionshasalsosometimesbeenomitted,whichispoorpractice.
Candidatesareadvisednottouseastandardtemplateforthecontentsoftheirprojectreport,with
muchgenericmaterialabout,forexample,designmethodsorapproachestotesting.Instead,they
shouldensurethatthecontentsofthereportarespecifictotheirproject.
Candidatesareremindedthattheymustincludeevidencethattheprojectactuallysatisfiesits
specification.Forexample,aprojectwhichupdatesadatabaseshouldincludeevidenceofcontents
beforeandafteranupdate.
Someprojectshaveincludedtestdatawhichdemonstratedthattheprojectwasnotmeetingits
specifications,withoutshowinghowtheseresultshavebeenusedtodiscovererrorswhichwere
subsequentlycorrected.Whileinclusionofsuchdataandresultsisfullyacceptable,thesubsequent
errorcorrectionprocessshouldalsobeshown,andthefinalacceptableresultsincluded.
Afterobtainingapprovalfortheproposal,itisacceptableforcandidatestomakeminorchangestoa
projectspecificationwithoutobtainingfurtherapproval.Forinstance,itwouldbepossibletochange
thetechnologyonwhichawebsiteishostedaslongasthereasonsforthechangeareexplainedinthe
projectreport.
Theinclusionofcorrectreferencesandpropercitationsisprofessionallyimportant;and,where
materialfromothersourcesisincluded,mustonnoaccountbeomitted.