VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING SCIENCES

VVU
Excellence        Integrity        Service

SENIOR RESEARCH PROJECTS

[SUBMISSION GUIDELINES]

MAY 2020

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OVERVIEW
The purpose of this guide is to help students of all departments under Computing
Sciences, Valley View University in the preparation of their academic writings based on
their academic projects undertake.

The Final Year Project guideline consists of Project Proposal, Project 1 and Project 2
(Final Year Project), constitute a very significant part of the study for Diploma and
Degree in all programs in the department. The project is a module that provides the
students with the opportunity to design, undertake or conduct an independent piece of
research or study related to their program of studies under the guidance of a supervisor,
who is normally a member of the academic staff.

The project will carry 6 credits and will normally last for two (2) semesters. A research
project report should be submitted as part as of the module and this should be
complemented with a project presentation and software or product demonstration. The
following sections consist of a report structure and guidance to write a good report for
Diploma and Degree projects and to ensure that essential parts are not missed out.

A.  GENERAL DOCUMENT FORMAT

The format for Final Year Report writing for the Department of Computing Sciences is in
reference to the American Psychological Association (APA) documentation system.

Presentation and printing

All final copies of the report should be typed.

The general format of the document you present are as follows:

§   Font Style: - Courier New
§   Font Size: - 12
§   Paragraph Line Spacing: - Double Line spacing
§   Margins: - 1 inch for Top, Bottom, Left, and Right
§   Text Alignment: - Justify
§   In text referencing: - APA Format
§   Page Numbers: - Should be centered at the bottom page. The page number
should just be the number without any annotation. Avoid the use of page
numbers such as

5|Page
§   No footers or headers.
§   Labels for all figures should be below the figure and the figure should be
broad enough (i.e. cover at least ½ of the page). The figure numbers should be
dependent on the chapter.
§   Labels for all tables should be above the table and the table should be broad
enough (i.e. cover at least ½ of the page). The table numbers should be
dependent on the chapter.
§   Please Note: We will look out for the general presentation layout, and
discussion flow of the report.
§   You should have ONLY one introduction, and that should be in Chapter 1.

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B.  REQUIRED CHAPTERS
Chapter 1 General Introduction (Research Proposal)
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Chapter 3 Crystallization of the Research Problem
Chapter 4 Analysis of the Proposed System
Chapter 5 Detailed design of the Proposed System
Chapter 6 System Implementation and Testing
Chapter 7 System Documentation
Chapter 8 Conclusion and Recommendations
References

C.  DOCUMENT DETAILS (Research and System Development)

Preliminary Pages
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Declaration
Abstract
Besides the Cover Page you are require to number all the Preliminary Pages in Roman
Numerals

1.   Proposal guidelines (Research Project Proposal)

Students are expected to formulate their project proposal independently. After the
students have been assigned a supervisor, the project topic can be further refined. The
proposal should be about 1500-3000 words long, indicating the topic of the project,
the project objective and scope, an outline of the methodology and conclusion.
1.0  Introduction
- Describe the background of the project work. Establish the context. Discuss
why this problem is important. Briefly describe the development process you
will follow.
1.1  Subject and Field of Study
1.2  Problem Statement
-Provide current problems/issues. Problem statement must be derived from the
introduction.
1.3  Study Objectives
1.2.1   Global (General) Objectives
1.2.2   Specific Objectives
-The objectives of the project must reflect with the problem statement
generated earlier. The objective must be clear, measurable, realistic, and
achievable.
1.3  Background to the Study
1.4  Scope of Study

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 -This section describes the boundaries of the project. Basically, what and who
does the project cover.
1.5  Justification of the Study/Significance of Study
-In this section discusses the importance of the project to users, organizations
or society.
1.6  Methodology
-Describe methods used along the research or project activities. In other
words, it describes the flow of research activities from the beginning until the
end and we need to thoroughly explain the involved steps in the activities.
(Interview, Questionnaire, Observation, Desktop Review)
Please Note: For Research + System Development, specify and justify the
Software Development Process Model to be employed.
1.7  Expected Results of the Study & Possible Use (Research/Study Deliverables)
1.8  Presentation of Thesis (Chapter-by-Chapter Summary of Thesis)
1.9  Study Work Plan (Timelines)
References [Use APA Format]

2.  LITERATURE REVIEW [BEWARE OF PLAGIARISM]

•   This chapter is mandatory and is different from the background provided in the
Introduction. The background provides general information. The literature review
focuses on issues that are more specifically related to the work in your project.
•   Do not copy and paste text from the literature; paraphrase the contents in your
own words and provide the in-text references.
•   Your research needs to demonstrate that you have done a literature search and
completed a critical analysis of the relevant literature describing prior work in the
field. Demonstrate this by writing some discussions on what others have done,
what they have achieved, and limitations of their work. If they exist, then provide
reviews of prior work in the literature, this shows that you have done a
comprehensive literature search.
•   Therefore, describe and analyze the knowledge that exists and identify the gaps in
research related to your project topic. This should clarify the relationship between
your research topic and the work that has previously been done.
•   Also, you are required to review BETWEEN five (5) to ten (10) existing
computer-based systems for those undertaking Research and System
Development. Please note: Your website references should not exceed 20% of
the total references.

3.  CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE PROBLEM

You are required to study the system implemented by your case study
organization(s). Provide information on the following
i.   Background/History
ii.   How they operate (components/features of the system they use even if it is
manual, processes or procedures involved). Include the system context
diagram and the process or data flow diagrams.
iii.   The strength/advantages and the weaknesses/disadvantages of the system
they use.
iv.   Conduct a comparative study by juxtaposing with what exist in the body of
knowledge (especially from the literature reviewed).

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 Please note: The list above is not exhaustive. You can discuss with your
supervisor on additions to include.

4.   ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

Describe the problem analysis, enhanced with an analysis model in UML.
Specify the resulting set of system level and software level requirements.
A typical analysis of the proposed system has the following subheadings;
4.1    Overview of the proposed system
-    Functional Requirements
                                                                         -    Non-functional Requirements
4.2  Major features/components of the proposed system
4.3  Benefits/Advantages of the proposed system
4.4  Algorithm of the proposed system
-Flowchart of the proposed system
-Pseudocode of the proposed system
4.5  System Context Diagram of the proposed system
Please note: The list above is not exhaustive. You can discuss with your supervisor on
additions to include.

5.   DETAILED DESIGN OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

Describe the architectural design and the detailed design enhanced with UML
model diagrams. Describe your rationale for the design decisions with
supporting data collected from trade-­‐ off studies. Describe the specific tools
and techniques used in subchapters.
5.1   Functional Processes of the Proposed System
5.2   Data Flow Diagrams
5.3   Process Models
Data Flow Diagrams Levels 0, 1, 2 and 3 where applicable
Draw the flow chart or write the pseudo-code or Structured
English for each bubble in the DFDs
Decision Trees/ Decision tables where applicable
Use Cases or User Scenarios
UML Class Diagram
5.4   Data Dictionary
    Database Schema
    Tables
    Table Relationship Diagram
Use enhanced Entity relationship diagrams where applicable

5.5   Show interactivity with:

Collaboration
Sequence Diagram,
Activity Diagram, and
State Transition Diagram
IPO and HIPO charts to show coupling between modules

6.   SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION & TESTING

The Implementation/the Creation of the Software/Methods used in the project
construction: Students should give a vivid description of how the detailed
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 design was implemented. This chapter shows or gives a summary of how the
entire system or project was carried out. Students should take time to indicate
step by step processes used in the construction of the software or research.
Detailed semantics of the operations of the software must be outlined with
snippets of codes to illustrate techniques and strategies adopted/adapted for
the implementation.
6.1 Implementation
Description of both the Hardware and Software required for the
implementation (installation) of the proposed system
6.2 Testing
Description of the testing strategy - Statement of Test Cases
for the proposed system - Indicate how the test cases were
tested and their results. Conjecturing test cases will not be
tolerated at all.

6.3 Sample codes

Provide the codes of the algorithm implemented in your work
and any other codes that uniquely defines some of the
components and/or security infrastructure in your work.

7.   SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
- User Manual for the system or a multimedia guided tour will be
appropriate.
- Description of both the Hardware and Software required for the
implementation (installation) of the proposed system is appropriate
here.
- Provide both text and snapshots of how to use the various components
of the system. The purpose is to enhance usability and learnability of
the system developed. Provide both text and flowchart of how to use
the various components of the system.

8.   CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

D.  REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY [USE APA FORMAT]

You are required to follow the format below or at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-
grammar-guidelines/references/examples/blog-post-references
§   Books
Author(s), Year of Publication, Title, Publisher(s), Edition,
Example: Quarshie, H. (2019). Computer Science Research Made Simple, 1st ed,

§   Journals Article
Author(s), Year of Publication, Title, Journal Name, Pages
Example: Quarshie, H. (2020). Computer Science Research Made Simple, Journal
for Advances in Computer Technology, Pages (34 – 37)

§   Conference Proceedings/Report
Author(s), Title, Pages, Year of Publication, Name of Conference, City, Publisher(s)
Example: Quarshie, H., Damoah, D. (2020). Computer Science Research Made
Simple, Pages (34 – 37, Ghana Researchers Conference, Koforidua, Silverplatter
Ventures

§   Document/information from Website

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 Author(s), Year of Publication, Name of Web Page/Name of Website, URL
Example: Silverplatter Ventures, (2019). What is Literature Review, Experiment
Resources, http://www.experiment-resources.com/what-is-a-literature-review.html

§   Interview
Interviewee, Title, Interviewer, Date
Example: Mansa Mansotwenee, Operations of Silverplatter Ventures,
Quarshie H, 11-11-2019
NOTE: Sort your references in alphabetical order.

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 E.  GRADING SCHEDULE

VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING SCIENCES
FINAL YEAR PROJECT I
GRADING SCHEDULE

STUDENT NAME: .........................................................................................................................

STUDENT ID #: ..............................................................................................................................
PROJECT TITLE: .........................................................................................................................

DESCRIPTION MARKS MARKS

ALLOTTED ASSIGNED

Defining the purpose of the research, justifying the research work

and clearly stating how the research was conducted and the 10 Marks
summary of the presentation of the research report

Literature Review - The extent, scope, details and relevance of

the Literature Review of previous research and other works
conducted in the area of the project. (10 marks) 30 Marks

Number of Review Systems -At least five (5) systems.

(4 marks each) =(20 marks)

Crystallization of the Problem – Demonstration of the

20 Marks
understanding of the problem to be solved.

Analysis - The relevance, scope, and the technical details, the

suitability of the adopted methodology and demonstration of the
student’s comprehension of the various technical, conceptual and
methodological issues pertaining to the analysis conducted. 20 Marks
(10 marks)
Algorithm (Pseudocode, flowchart) and context diagram
(10 marks)

General Presentation (documentation layout, discussion flow

10 Marks
of the report).

Oral Presentation/Dressing/Mannerism 10 Marks

TOTAL 100

Name of Supervisor/Moderator: ................................................... Signature: ..................................

Grade: ................................................... Date: .......................................................................

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 VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING SCIENCES
FINAL YEAR PROJECT II
GRADING SCHEDULE

STUDENT NAME: ……………………………………………………………………….

STUDENT ID#: …………………………………………………………………………..

PROJECT TITLE: ……………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………

MARKS MARKS
DESCRIPTION ALLOTED ASSIGNED

Design – The relevance, scope, and the technical details, the

suitability of the adopted design tools used and demonstration
of the student’s comprehension of the various technical, issues
pertaining to the design of the proposed system.

The relevance and completeness of the system design outputs. 50

The design should also consist of the following:
• Architecture Design – Interaction between components and/or
modules (15 marks)
• System Modeling – UML diagrams (DFD, Class Diagram, Use
Case, Sequence Diagram, Activity Diagram, and State Transition
Diagram). At least 5 diagrams required here. (25 marks)
• Database Design – ERD diagram (10 marks)
Alternative
• Story Board (Requirement for animation projects) (10 marks)
• Decision table, and Decision tree (Requirement for AI projects)
(10 marks)

Implementation – The extent to which the implemented system

addresses the key specific objectives of the project.
The demonstration of the working features of the developed
system in terms of sample data/information.

The quality and the relevancy of the user manual produced.

(15 marks)
The system documentation and the evidence of testing of the
system. (10 marks) 25
General Presentation (documentation layout, discussion flow
of the report). 15
Oral Presentation/Dressing/Mannerism 10
Total 100

Name of Supervisor/Moderator: …………………………… Signature: ………………

Grade: ………………………………………. Date: ……………………...

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 APPENDIX A – Cover Page Sample

VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY [line 1]

FACULTY OF SCIENCE [line 2]
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING [line 3]

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF [line 11] THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (BSC.) IN _____
DEGREE

TOPIC: [line 25]

[sample] A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF Facebook ON THE
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

BY: [line 35]

KWAME ABRAHAM

ID: [line 39]

299CT01067071

SUPERVISOR: [line 43] PROF. KOFI KING

DATE: [line 50]

MAY 2020
Please Note:
§   Text Alignment: Centered
§   Paragraph Line Spacing: - Double Line spacing
§   Font Size: 12
§   Font Style: Courier New
Bold the entire text for the cover page No underline or italize

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 APPENDIX B: Sample Declaration

DECLARATION

This is to declare that, the research work underlying this

thesis has been carried out by the under mentioned student

under the supervisor. Both student and the supervisor certify

that the work documented in this thesis is the output of the

research conducted by the student as part of her final year

project work in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree.

STUDENT: SUPERVISOR:
Ama Queen Prof. Kofi King

---------------------- -------------------
SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
DATE: DATE:

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 TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION
Rehearse and Practice your presentation before hand. Rehearse in a place similar to
prepare! where the actual presentation will be and talk thorough your presentation
out loud several times.
Make eye Engage with your audience by making eye contact and smiling. This will
contact help you connect with your audience.
Tip 1: Don’t have too many slides. Too many slides will lose the audience’s
attention.
Speak Effectively. Practice speaking how you would talk during your
presentation. Speak clearly, slowly, and concisely. Speaking slowly can
help to calm nerves and makes it easier for the audience to follow your
presentation.

Relax & Breathe. Practice breathing. This can help calm nerves during
the presentation. Remember, you know this information!

Be organized. Make sure your presentation and slides are structured and
organized. This will help you keep on track during your presentation and
help keep the audience’s attention.
Tip 2: Don’t add too much animation and sound effects.

Simple layout. Keep the layout of your slides simple by using easy to
read fonts, colors, and backgrounds. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri
and Helvetica are a few suggestions.

Don’t use hard to read fonts such as scripts.

Use keywords. The information on your slides should be kept at a
minimum. Use keywords to help get your message across. Keywords
should help you remember what you are going to say.

Keep information to a minimum. Slides convey key messages you want

your audience to take away.
Tip 3: Don’t make the audience read. Refrain from using and stay away from
‘word walls.’ The audience should not spend more time reading the
information on the slides than listening to presenter.
Body Language. Most communication is nonverbal. Engage the audience
by walking around, using hand gestures and making eye contact

Tip 5: Add graphics, images and videos as long as they are not distracting, and
their message contributes to the facts of the presentation.
Tip 6: Use your slide show as a prop or visual aid to your presentation.
Tip 7: : Add colors in to highlight important words and phrases. Just make sure
your words are still legible.
Remember: you know the information you are presenting.
…it is ok to make a mistake and be nervous.
…take a deep breath.
…you’ll do great!

[Source: Adapted from Clute Institute, Nov 21, 2019]

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 BUILDING THE TECHNICAL CHAPTERS

CHAPTER ON ANALYSIS AND REQUIREMENTS

Describe how you did requirements elicitation, conducted the analysis, and arrived at the
specified requirements. Provide analysis models, not just words. Some suggested model
elements are flowcharts, pseudocode, context level diagram and domain models. The
analysis models should express the system architecture and the top-level behavioral
requirements. Don’t provide a superficial model with just one or two context level use case
diagrams.

CHAPTER ON DESIGN
Generally, describe the architectural design model and the detailed design model in separate
chapters. Always, discuss the alternatives considered and the rationale for the choosing the
solutions you adopted. Describe the architectural and detailed design models in a disciplined
manner using both text and comprehensive design models, ideally expressed in UML. Use of
UML is highly recommended overusing ad hoc or older modeling notations. Suggested UML
design model elements are class diagrams, interaction diagrams, structured classes,
components, subsystems, and deployment models. Use DFD level 1 and 2, activity
diagrams, sequence diagrams and other domain models are also required.

Produce the model diagrams with a modern CASE tool, not drawing tools.
Provide a comprehensive design model with sufficient design information, not just one or
two top level model diagrams. Note that to describe a design adequately you must describe
both its static view and the dynamic view. The static view includes elements such as: classes
with inheritance and aggregation, structured classes, interfaces, components, subsystems, and
deployment. The dynamic view includes activity diagrams, sequence or communication
diagrams, and the state model, when appropriate.
NOTE: Remember that, in most research projects, the design model is the main aspect
of your work, and it deserves a good deal of your attention.

CHAPTER ON IMPLEMENTATION
Describe the overall strategy for implementation tasks, such as incremental builds, risk
mitigation measures. Discuss the reasons why you chose the specific programming language,
development tools, testing tools, and the implementation platform. Discuss strategies for
reuse of existing products and components. Use of design patterns in the implementation
demonstrates sophistication in the subject matter and is highly encouraged. Generally, you do
not need to provide source code in the research project, unless that code is central to your
research project, e.g. if you created new algorithms, design patterns and need to describe the
logic of those design patterns using code then code may be permitted. However, note that
describing design logic using detailed design models demonstrates a higher level of expertise
than using code to do the same.

Chapter on Testing and Validation

Describe how testing and validation tasks were performed. Describe the plans and strategies
used in unit testing, integration testing and system testing. Address regression testing.
Describe the test plans and provide test procedures for testing the critical functions. Describe
the test tools you used. Whenever possible, involve someone else, such as friends and
colleagues, in the testing and verification process, and include their comments and
observations. Provide test metrics, such as number of defects found, defect density of the
discovered defects, code and branch coverage metrics. Ideally there should be an analysis
describing the defect injection and discovery characteristics, such as: types of defects,
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injection phases and discovery phases.

NOTE: If your research project serves an external customer then you must involve end users,
selected by the customer, in the testing process. Examples of such projects are community
service projects, project from your place of work, or projects with an external sponsor. For
projects involving the end users in the testing serves as an acceptable validation process.

ELIMINATE PLAGIARISMAGIARISM
1.   There must be no plagiarism in a research project. The Computing Sciences
department has zero tolerance against submission of any work containing any amount
of plagiarized material. Follow the guidelines stated in the Valley View University
Students Handbook in the section named “Student Academic dishonesty”, pages 59-
64. These guidelines preempt any other ideas that you might have on what constitutes
plagiarism. Please follow the rules stated there, especially on quoting sources and
paraphrasing contents written by others.
Consequences of submitting plagiarized work is very serious, including starting
the project over with a different topic. In most cases the sanctions stipulated in
the Valley View University Students Handbook page 61 may apply.

2.   Do a similarity check of your research using www.grammarly.com and use it to

eliminate all plagiarized material and to check your grammar. Ask your Supervisor
for a Grammarly account. With quoted text and bibliography excluded, the
similarity index should be less than 20%. Grammarly sometimes flags URLs as
plagiarized text, but you can ignore those findings.

SOME USEFUL RESOURCES

Style and Grammar Checker
1.   “Writing Enhancement Software review” Retrieved: June 8, 2011. A good source for
checking English grammar and writing style
http://writing-­‐enhancement-­‐software-­‐review.toptenreviews.com/
2.   WhiteSmoke Grammar tool
http://www.whitesmoke.com
3.   English Software
http://www.englishsoftware.org/

Books and Articles on Thesis Writing

1.   Trimble, John R. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (3rd.
Edition). Longman, New York: 2010
2.   “Purdue Online Writing Lab”
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
3.   Zinsser, William. On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The classic Guide to
Writing Nonfiction. Harper Collins, London: 2006.
4.   “A Research Guide for Students”
http://www.aresearchguide.com/styleguides.html
5.   University of Waterloo guide on Thesis and Long Documents.
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/ew/thesis/ThesisCourse/WordTheses.html

Tutorial
Tutorial on creating numbered section headings etc. in Microsoft Word.
1.   http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html
2.   https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=283073&p=1886004

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