Guide to Students for Their Research Project

Objectives

The research project is an important piece of work in your degree programme. It provides you with
the opportunity to be able to demonstrate your originality and to plan and organise your project over
the period available.

The Project Co-ordinators

The Project Co-ordinators for this are Professor Nitin Mahankale and Professor Supriya Chouthoy.
You will however be assigned an individual guide who will assist and guide you through your project.

Choosing an Individual Project

Students are responsible to identify a functional area of their choice and a related topic on which
they are desirous of doing their project. The students can choose any area related to management
for e.g. Human Resource Management, Marketing management, Financial Management etc. Once
Students have submitted their Area+Topic, they will be allotted faculty guides, who will supervise
their project.

1. Selecting the area of research (Marketing, Finance or Human Resources etc.)

2. Select the Sub Area of research: Under the broad area selected it is very important to
conduct a specific study of sub area under it. E.g. If the area selected is Marketing, then the sub
area could be “Consumer Behavior”

3. Selection of the topic of research. In the above example it can be “Shopping Behavior of
Customers While Buying Cosmetics at Supermarkets”.

Another example would be HR (Area), Retention and Development (Specialisation) and “Retention
of employees in the IT sector in Pune district”(Topic). This title specifically indicates a study of
retention of employees of a particular sector in a particular region. Every word of the title of your
project must make complete sense.

Submission of Final report: Students have to submit one hard bound copy and one soft copy in
CD form of their final project to the college on or before 1st February 2011. Students should comply
with the format given by the college.

Evaluation of the project Report: The initial assessment of 50 marks of the project will be
undertaken by your guide. The 50 mark evaluation will then be completed by the viva team which is
made up of two faculties other than your guide. One of the most important skills assessed is your
ability to communicate your ideas and work. As part of the assessment you will be required to give a
oral presentation of your project to your Viva and external assessment team. This team will assess
your project for 50 marks (25 marks for the report and 25 marks for the viva).
Particulars Meeting 1 Meeting Meeting Meeting Meeting Total
2 3 4 5 Marks
Submission of - - - - - -
proposal: Students
have to submit a
proposed topic of their
project to the project
coordinator on or before
22nd November 2010.
Project Guide appointed 5 marks - - - - 5
who will award marks for
Topic
Submission of 5 marks - - - - 5
Synopsis of Project
and discussion of
Questionnaire with
their project guides on or
before 29th of
November 2010.

Questionnaire - 10 marks - - - 10
Finalisation: for their
topic in consultation with
the faculty on or before
6th December 2010.

Pilot Study Analysis: - - 10 marks - - 10

Students need to
conduct a pilot study of
5% of their sample and
discuss its analysis with
their guides by
December 13th, 2010.
Submission Of data - - - 10 marks - 10
Analysis and
interpretation And
First Draft of their
project report to the
faculty guide on or
before 14th January
2011.
Submission of Final - - - - 10 marks 10
Report on 1st Feb 2011

Panel Interview and - - - - - 50

Evaluation (15 Feb 2011
onwards)

TOTAL MARKS 100

Assessment

It is important when choosing a project to understand the way it will be assessed. A good first-class
project involves a combination of sound background research, a solid implementation, or piece of
theoretical work, and a thorough evaluation of the project's output in both absolute and relative
terms. A good tip is to try to think of the project as an "investigation", rather than an effort to deliver a
fully-functioning "product".

Plans and Back-ups

Plan your project keeping in mind your submission and discussion dates with your guide. Do also
plan to keep backups, in case your computer misbehaves.
Note that there is no excuse for failing to keep adequate backups on your
computer/CDs/USBs. If you lose your program or your data or your report because of a
system failure you will simply lose marks. No extensions will be given at the end of the project for
you to re-type a lost report, for example.

Meeting Your Guide

You must make sure that you schedule regular meetings with your guide. If you need to talk to your
guide between meetings and cannot locate them in college, send a mail asking them to suggest a
time when they will be available. When you go to see your guide you should have prepared a written
list of points you wish to discuss. Take notes during the meeting so that you do not forget the advice
you were given or the conclusions that were reached.

After you have selected your topic, you need to formulate a hypothesis: The hypothesis is an
assumption and becomes the guideline for the project work. It is a tentative statement, the validity of
which needs to be tested. E.g. “Shopping Behavior of Customers While Buying Cosmetics at
Supermarkets –This study looks at impulse buying tendencies as a function of two general
personality traits, that of lack of control and reaction to stress. Additionally, the study identifies
several different types of internal states and environmental/ sensory stimuli that serve as cues for
triggering impulse buying.

Collection of the data:

1. First collect the secondary data. Adapt the collected data to your topic because somebody
else has collected the data from their point of view.
2. Then collect the primary data through a personal interview or questionnaire
3. Design your questionnaire with the help of your guide.
4. Steps involved after collection of Primary data:
• Organization of data
• Classification of data
• Analysis of data
• Tabulation of data
• Find the conclusions from tables by using logical reasoning, quantitative or mathematical
methods etc.
5. Testing of the Hypothesis
6. Standard format for the final project report
o The report should be in black hard bound.
o The writing should be in golden letter on the cover as per the format given.
o The content should be 50-60 pages.
o The report should be typed on one side of the paper with one and half line space and 12 font
size of Times New Roman.
 o The report should be in A-4 size.
o The physical layout and formatting of the report is also important, and a tidy, well laid out and
consistently formatted document makes for easier reading and is suggestive of a careful and
professional attitude towards its preparation.

Final submission has to be in a hard copy and a soft copy (PDF format) on a CD. The 2 copies need
to be submitted earlier for signatures from the head of the Institute and the project guide. The
students can keep the hard bound copy and submit the signed CD jacket to the Guide. The project
needs to be physically carried by the student for the viva and external evaluation.

The project report needs to be a 50 to 70 page quality report. Conciseness, clarity and elegance are
invaluable qualities in report writing and will be rewarded appropriately. Try to ensure that your
report contains the following elements (the exact structure, chapter titles etc):

First Page: Title of Report

This should include the project title and the name of the author of the report. You can also list the
name of your guide if you wish.

Second Page: Acknowledgements

It is usual to thank those individuals who have provided particularly useful assistance, technical or
otherwise, during your project. Your guide will obviously be pleased to be acknowledged as he or
she will have invested quite a lot of time overseeing your progress.

Third Page: Bonafide Certificate from the Director

Fourth Page: Student Undertaking

Fifth Page: Abstract

The abstract is a very brief summary of the report's contents. It should be about half a page long.
Somebody unfamiliar with your project should have a good idea of what it's about having read the
abstract alone and will know whether it will be of interest to them.
 Sixth Page : Table of Contents
(This should list the main chapters and subsections of your report. Choose self-explanatory chapter
titles and use double spacing for clarity. If possible you should include page numbers indicating
where each chapter/section begins)

Chapter Heading Page

Nos

Chapter 1 Introduction
This is one of the most important components of the report. It should begin
with a clear statement of what the project is about so that the nature and
scope of the project can be understood by a lay reader. It should
summarise everything you set out to achieve, provide a clear summary of
the project's background, relevance and main contributions. The
introduction should set the scene for the project and should provide the
reader with a summary of the key things to look out for in the remainder of
the report.

Chapter 2 Review of Literature

This needs to be 2 to 4 pages stating the literature reviewed and their
viewpoint.

Chapter 3 Body of report

The central part of the report usually consists of four to five chapters
detailing the technical work undertaken during the project. The structure of
these chapters is highly project dependent. However you choose to
structure this part of the report, you should make it clear how you arrived at
your chosen approach. It should also document any interesting problems
with, or features of, your implementation. Integration and testing are also
important to discuss in some cases. You need to discuss the content of
these sections thoroughly with your guide.

Chapter 4 Objective of the Report, Hypothesis and Methodology

Chapter 5 Data Collection and Analysis

At some point you should also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of
what you have done. It is important to understand that there is no such
thing as a perfect project. Even the very best pieces of work have their
limitations and you are expected to provide a proper critical appraisal of
what you have done.

Chapter 6 Findings, Interpretation and Conclusion

The project's conclusions should list the things which have been learnt as
a result of the work you have done.
Chapter 7 Recommendations & Suggestions

• Bibiliography (as per format)

This consists of a list of all the books, articles, manuals and websites used
in the project and referred to in the report. You should provide enough
information to allow the reader to find the source. You should give the full
title and author and should state where it is published, including full issue
number and date, and page numbers where necessary. In the case of a
text book you should quote the name of the publisher as well as the
author(s). A weakness of many reports is inadequate citation of a source of
information. It's easy to get this right so there are no excuses. Each entry
in the bibliography should list the author(s) and title of the piece of work
and should give full details of where it can be found. For example:

[1] Bennett, A.J., Field, A.J. and Harrison, P.G., "Modelling and Validation
of Shared Memory Coherency Protocols", Performance Evaluation, 1996,
Vol. 27 & 28, 1996, pp. 541-562. rather than just listing the source as
"Performance Evaluation 1996".

• Annexure
The appendices contain information which is peripheral to the main body of
the report. Information typically included are things like tables, proofs, test
cases or any other material which would break up the theme of the text.
You should bind all your material in a single volume if possible.

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