Guidelines For The

Final Year Project

TPR3321

Faculty of Information Technology

Multimedia University
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction To The Final Year Project..........................................................1

2 Project Schedule..............................................................................................2
2.1 Selecting a Topic ............................................................................................2
2.2 Activities in Trimester II (8 weeks).............................................................2
2.3 Activities in Trimester III. (14 weeks) ........................................................3
2.4 Grading and Assessment ................................................................................3
3 Pitfalls and Problems ......................................................................................4
4 The Final Year Project Reports.......................................................................5
4.1 The Interim Report .........................................................................................5
4.1.1 Suggested Order and Contents of the Interim Report ....................................5
4.2 The Final Report .............................................................................................7
4.2.1 Suggested Order and Contents of the Final Report........................................7
5 The Business Plan/Research Paper .................................................................9
5.1 The Business plan ...........................................................................................9
5.2 Research Paper............................................................................................. 11
5.2.1 Paper Style ................................................................................................... 11
5.2.2 Tables and Figures....................................................................................... 11
5.2.3 Artwork Format ........................................................................................... 11
5.2.4 Reference and Reference Section ................................................................ 11
6 Guidelines for Report Preparation ............................................................... 12
6.1 Cover and Title Page ................................................................................... 12
6.2 Document Layout ........................................................................................ 15
6.3 Quoted Material ........................................................................................... 17
6.4 Data Presentation ......................................................................................... 17
6.5 References.................................................................................................... 18
6.5.1 Format for Bibliographic Entries................................................................. 19
6.6 Other Points to Note on Writing Report...................................................... 19
6.7 Binding......................................................................................................... 20
7 Final Year Project Meeting Log................................................................... 21
 Important Notice To All Students
Plagiarism is a serious offence. Downloading materials
from websites for the report contents is prohibited.

You must sign the report submission declaration form

that your FYP report has been done by your own
efforts without any plagiarism
FIT FYP Guidelines Revised on 2 Oct 2006

1 Introduction To The Final Year Project

The two-semester, final year project (TPR 3321) will be one of the most important parts of your
undergraduate studies. It will also be one of the most time-consuming, taking up many hours
over a two-semester, 22-week period. Why is this activity so important that it is worth spending
all this time, and why is it a required part of the FIT undergraduate program? The answer is that
information technology is both a theoretical and an empirical, hands-on discipline, and there are
many skills that simply cannot be taught in the classroom. They can only be learned through
practical experience—that is, working on a large project that exposes you to some of these
important ideas, such as:

* Working effectively as part of a team. For this project you can work individually or in
teams of 2-3 students. You divide up the tasks, monitor the work of each person, and
integrate these individual efforts into a single package. In the “real world” software is
rarely, if ever, developed alone, so learning to be an effective part of a software
development team is an important learning experience.

* Interacting with users. With most classroom projects you are given a problem and told
to solve it. In the real world, however, problem statements are not given out in a finished
form. Your team must develop the problem statement through meetings and discussions
with potential users of your software.

* Developing specification and design documents. In software engineering classes you

learned formal methods for representing specification and design documents. However,
code developed in class is usually too small to demonstrate their real benefits. That is not
the case with the final-year project. It involves the development of a large, complex
software package that requires the effective use of software development tools. Without
these formal design and implementation methods, the scale of the project will quickly
overwhelm you.

* Developing prototypes. Building prototypes is a common task in software

development. Users are often unable to express their needs without seeing a working
model. In class there is rarely enough time to develop both a prototype and a fully
functional program. However, for the final year project you will build a working
prototype of your proposed software.

* Improving your writing and oral presentation skills. Two fundamentally important
parts of the project are the written documents you produce and the oral presentations you
give. At the end of Trimester I you will deliver an Interim Report and demonstrate your
prototype. At the end of Trimester II you will produce a Final Report and give a
presentation of the finished system.

As you can see, there is much more to a final year project than simply “writing lots of code.”
Instead, it is a chance to put into practice the software development concepts that, until now,
have only been studied formally. By the end of the project you will have developed a set of

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practical skills that will serve you well throughout your professional career. That is why the
hours put into this course are considered hours well spent.

2 Project Schedule

2.1 Selecting a Topic

The first step is to select teammates and pick a topic that you would enjoy working on for 6
months. When describing the projects course, TPR 3321, the MMU Student Handbook states
that you work on a topic “… selected in consultation with a supervisor from the faculty.” Many
students think this means that, at the beginning of Trimester II, they meet with a faculty advisor
who assigns them a topic. That is a serious mistake. Working for 6 months on a project that you
did not select and in which you have little interest can significantly reduce your enjoyment of
this experience and turn it into nothing more than a large (VERY large) homework assignment.

Instead, start thinking about possible topics well before the project course begins—perhaps as
early as Trimester 1 of the third year or even Trimester 3 at the end of the second year. Consider
ideas that sound interesting because of a desire to know more about a subject, a desire to learn
how to use a particular software package, or a goal of working professionally in this area after
graduation. Perhaps you would like to investigate a research idea presented in one of your
classes. Whatever the reason, the project topic should be something that you and your
teammates choose rather than something assigned to you. It is much more enjoyable to put in
time on a project if it is yours rather than someone else’s.

Start by reading technical books, professional articles, or interesting Web pages. Talk with
faculty and other IT professionals—perhaps people you are working with for Industrial Training.
You can visit the MDeC (Multimedia Development Corporation) or any other organizations and
learn about projects currently being investigated. Your goal is to have a well-defined problem
statement ready for review as early as possible in Trimester 2.

2.2 Activities in Trimester II (8 weeks)

Trimester II is concerned with developing the problem specification and design. The team’s
progress on these activities will be monitored through regular weekly meetings with your
supervisor. The work in Trimester II counts 30% toward the overall grade.

By the second week of the trimester you must have a short, written description of the project.
Then, for the next 5-6 weeks the team develops a complete and precise problem statement
followed by the formal design of a software system that solves this problem. In addition, the
team must also prepare an implementation plan that will guide its activities during Trimester 3,
and build a working prototype that demonstrates the functionality of your proposed software.

At the end of week 6-7 you are required to produce two “deliverables.” The first is the Interim
Report (Week 6) describing what you have done. This includes literature search, interviews, and

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market surveys, as well as the completed specifications and design. A thorough description of
the format of this report is contained in Section 5.1. The team will also give a demonstration
(Week 7) of the prototype to the supervisor and project moderators.

2.3 Activities in Trimester III. (14 weeks)

Trimester III is concerned with system implementation as well as the business modelling or
research contribution of the project. Your job is to take the specification and design work done
during the previous trimester and constructs a finished, working systems that meet all
specifications. At the same time, you need prepare either a business plan to identify the market
and commercialisation potentials of the project or a document to clarify the research contribution
(refer to the rest of this document for details) in the research area. Please note that in cases where
you are unable to identify any commercial or research potential, the project will be evaluated
entirely on its system implementation and will not be evaluated on the 5% allocated for the
business plan or research contribution. You will again meet weekly with your supervisor to
describe the team’s activities and detail its progress. Your activities in Trimester III will count
70% toward the overall grade.

You have 12-13 weeks to complete the implementation. At the end of week 12-13 the team is
required to deliver the following items:

* Final Report (Week 12). This report describes the results achieved, outlines the steps
you went through during implementation, and discusses how the final results conform to
what was originally proposed. The contents of the Final Report are given in this
document.

* Presentation of The Software (Week 13). The team will give a demonstration of the
finished software to both their supervisor and the moderators.

2.4 Grading and Assessment

You will receive a single grade for the two-semester, final year project course. 30% of the grade
is based on your work in Trimester II and 70% is based on the work in Trimester III. The
following chart describes the components of this grade:

Trimester II (Project 1 Course) Trimester III. (Project 2 Course)

Activity Percent Activity Percent

General Effort 10% General Effort 10%

Presentation 10% Presentation 15%
Project Implementation 20%
Interim Report 10% Final Report 25%

Total 30% Total 70%

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At the conclusion of Trimester III, the Project 1 and Project 2 courses will both be given the
same grade point, and that grade point will be used in the calculation of GPA/CGPA following
Trimester III.

3 Pitfalls and Problems

The final year project will be a demanding but exciting learning experience. However, it is not
without problems which, if not identified and addressed, could seriously effect the final result
and ultimately reduce your grade. In this section we mention some of these problems and how to
avoid them.

a. The “Overachiever” Problem. A common problem is selecting a topic that is far too
ambitious for the allotted time. Remember that you have only 12-13 weeks to finish the coding,
debugging, and testing. Be careful not to select a topic that is unrealistically large. This can lead
to frustration as well as errors caused by “cutting corners” and hurrying through the
implementation. Discuss with your advisor the scale of what you are planning. If he or she
thinks it may be too large, consider implementing the project in stages, each complete in itself.
When stage I is working move on to stage II. If you do not finish stage II, however, you still will
have a functioning system.

b. The “Do It Tomorrow” Problem. Thirteen weeks sounds like a long time, but it goes by
quickly. You need an implementation schedule that allocates reasonable amounts of work
throughout the entire semester. Then you must stick to that schedule. Don’t be tempted to
postpone work on the project because week 13 seems so far off. All that happens is that during
the final few weeks you rush madly to get something working, and software implemented in a
rush rarely works correctly!

c. The “Sleeping Member” Problem. In the ideal world, all team members have equal ability,
equal interest in the problem, and work equally hard. In the real world that may not happen.
You may have one (or more) team members who do not carry their share of the workload, not
because of a lack of ability, but rather lack of interest or motivation. This is a serious problem
because, although part of your grade is based on each individual’s effort, another part is based on
successfully finishing the project. A non-contributing team member can slow down or prevent
completion of the work. If you have a teammate who is not doing his or her share of the work,
talk to them and stress the importance of everyone doing their job. If this does not solve the
problem then talk to your supervisor. Don’t let the failure of others prevent you from completing
the work and receiving a good grade.

d. The “Poop Out At The End” Problem. You have worked hard for 13 weeks to complete this
project. You have spent many late nights and chased down hundreds of bugs, but it is now
working, so are you done? Absolutely not! The project grade is not based only on the programs
you develop but also on your written reports and oral presentations. Even though you may be
‘burned out” from implementation, remember there is still work to do. Don’t produce a poorly
written paper or give a poorly organized presentation. That will negate much of your good work.

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Put in the time needed to prepare both a well written, high-quality final report and a well
organized, polished presentation A good job on these last steps will insure that you receive a
grade that fairly represents the work you have done.

4 The Final Year Project Reports

4.1 The Interim Report

Each group is to submit an interim report with clear indication of the contribution from
individual research work.

Two comb-bound hard copies and one soft copy of the Interim Report are to be delivered to the
FIT’s General Office no later than 5:00 PM on day 5 of week 6 of Trimester II.(note: The sample
for labeling the softcopy (disk/CD) is shown in the next page). You must attach Final Year
Project Meeting Log sheets (see section 7) as an appendix to the report. The recommended
structure of this report is discussed below, together with suggestions on the appropriate contents
of each section. However, these are only guidelines to assist you in preparing this document.
There is great diversity in the types of projects undertaken by students, and that may influence
the weighting or emphasis given to the various sections of your report.

4.1.1 Suggested Order and Contents of the Interim Report

• Declaration
Students should declare with signatures saying the report has been done by themselves and no
plagiarism has been included.

● Acknowledgement

• Table of Contents
Each student’s contribution to the relevant chapters and section should clearly be indicated by
name.

• Management Summary
In one page, certainly not more than two, summarize the main features of your project, what
problem it is solving and how you propose to solve it. This brief overview should give a
snapshot of the overall structure of your final year project.

• Introduction
Outline the scope of your project. How did the problem present itself to you in the first place?
Describe the nature of the problem in detail.

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• Research Objectives

Clear statement of research objectives is necessary. It is recommended to describe in an itemized

manner.

● Background and Literature Search

Describe what you have discovered in your literature search or market survey. Does this
problem exist anywhere else? Who is working on it? How have others solved it? Give references
to some of the main articles/books/Web pages discussing this problem.

• Proposed Solution
Outline in detail your approach to solving the problem. Describe the proposed solution methods
and the progress you have achieved. Reference your formal specifications and design documents,
which can be placed in the Appendix. If you have implemented a prototype of your solution,
discuss it, and describe its behavior.

• Implementation Plan
Lay out the project implementation plan for the next semester. Discuss the project’s target and
milestone dates. If you will be implementing your project in discrete stages, describe them and
discuss how far you think you will be able to get.

• Conclusion
Conclusion for each research objective should clearly be stated.

• Bibliography
Include here all bibliographic materials referenced within your report. You must quote reference
number at appropriate places in the report where needed.

• Appendix
Some of the highly technical details from the above sections can be placed in the Appendix and
referenced from the body of the report. Include all relevant technical documentation, such as
specification documents, design documents, and code listings. Final Year Project Meeting Log
sheets should be attached as an appendix as well.
In summary, the Interim Report is written in the style of a working document rather than a
finished report. It introduces your problem, looks at what others have done in this area, presents
a proposed solution, and describes an implementation plan.

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4.2 The Final Report

Each group is to submit the final report with clear indication of the contribution from individual
research work.

Two comb-bound copies, one hard cover copy, and two softcopy of the final report (in MS Word
and PDF format) are to be delivered to the FIT Assistant Director’s Office no later than 5:00 PM
on day 4 of week 12, Trimester III. You must attach Final Year Project Meeting Log sheets (see
section 5.10) as an appendix to the report. In addition, softcopy of the source code developed and
related digital files should be submitted in diskette / CD. The last day for student to submit the
two copies of the soft cover is the Saturday before the Project Seminar week.

Labelling for diskette: Labelling for CD:

Name:
ID:
Name: Project Title:
ID: Supervisor:
Project Title: Degree Program:
Supervisor: Faculty:
The recommended
Degree Program: structure of the final report
isSession:
discussedbelow, together with suggestions on
Faculty:
theSession:
appropriate contents of each section. However, these are only guidelines to assist you in
preparing this document. There is great diversity in the types of projects undertaken by students,
and that may influence the weighting or emphasis given to the various sections of your report.

4.2.1 Suggested Order and Contents of the Final Report

• Declaration
Students should declare with signature saying the report has been done by themselves and no
plagiarism has been included.

• Acknowledgement

• Table of Contents
Each student’s contribution to the relevant chapters and section should clearly be indicated by
name.

• Management Summary
As with the Interim Report, you begin your Final Report with a Management Summary. Write
this section last as it is here that you will step back and give an overview of what has been
achieved. In one page, certainly not more than two, list the main features of your project, what
problem you were solving and how you solved it.

• Introduction
How did the problem originally present itself to you in the first place, and how did it evolve over
the course of the project. Give a detailed summary of the problem as well as a review of the

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literature or the market survey. You will likely take much of this material from the Introduction
section of the Interim Report.

• Research Objectives
You must clearly state the project research objectives in an itemized manner.

• Background and Literature Search

Describe what you have discovered in your literature search or market survey. Does this problem
exist anywhere else? Who is working on it? How have others solved it? Give references to some
of the names of articles/books/web pages, discussing this problem.

• The Solution
Describe your solution in detail. You may refer to the Appendix for detailed computer code or
other technical materials, but some summary or overview diagrams of the solution should be
placed in the body of the report. This will help the reader get a sense for the overall structure of
the solution.

• The Implementation Process/Results

Describe the process you went through to complete the project and compare what actually
happened with the goals you were trying to achieve. Highlight any major variations from your
original plans. Discuss the behavior of the finished program, and show some of its functionality.

• Testing
For the implemented systems and software, testings should be conducted and their results should
be documented.

• Conclusions
What has been accomplished for each project objective (Students should clearly state the
conclusion for each project objective). What are the major things that you learned from this
project? What work still needs to be done on the system and how can it be improved and/or
enhanced? Do you have any future plans for this software package?

• Bibliography/References
Include here all bibliographic/reference materials referenced within your report. You must quote
references at appropriate places in the report where needed.

• Appendix
Some of the minute detail of the sections above can be relegated to the Appendix and referenced
from the body of the report. Include all relevant documentation, computer coding, screen
displays, business plan/research paper, etc. Final Year Project Meeting Log sheets should be
attached as an appendix as well.
In summary, the Final Report should be written in the style of a finished and fully polished
document that you would be willing to show to either a prospective employer or the admissions

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officer of an IT graduate school. It should follow the publications guidelines specified in the
following section.

5 The Business Plan/Research Paper

To write a business plan, you should firstly ensure that your project is business worthy. In other
words, it should have some commercial value. Examples of such projects would include a web
business, a biometrics software etc. on the other hand, if your project is more research oriented,
you should come out with a document which would clarify its significance to the research area.
Examples of such projects would include new algorithms or framework.
It would be difficult to classify some projects as they could fall into both categories easily. In
such cases, you would need to make an assessment and decide on one. Please discuss with your
supervisor on how to write the business plan or research document.

5.1 The Business plan

Include this section if your project has the potential to be commercialized. Describe the
following three items in this paragraph: (i) Deliverables, (ii) Project Risks and (iii) Market and
Commercialization Potential. Under (i) Deliverables item, please identify and describe each of
the deliverables to result from this project and for each deliverable provide detailed technical
description of each deliverables. For the item (ii) Project Risks, please identify and describe all
the risk factors in this Project and how these risks will be managed. In the section (iii) Market
and Commercialization Potential, please describe the target market, the performance or market
constraints that will affect successful commercialization, and the anticipated market share.
Report on any market survey done to date. Please quantify the market size. Also, describe the
relevance of this project’s outcomes to the Malaysian marketplace. Please provide details on the
competitive analysis of your product/service vis-à-vis competitive products/services. The length
of the business plan should be limited to a maximum of four (4) pages only.
You can use the template as provided below:

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SECTION 1: THE BUSINESS PROFILE

1. Project Risks
• Please identify and describe all the risk factors in this Project and how these risks
will be managed.

2. Deliverables
• Identify and describe each of the deliverables to result from this project.

• For each deliverable provide detailed technical description of each deliverables

in tabular format. Please provide deliverables for every quarter.

• Deliverable Title

• Delivery Format (what is to be delivered, e.g. CD ROMs, software, paper

documents)

• Target Date for delivery from project commencement

• Description

SECTION 2: COMMERCIALISATION
1. Market and Commercialisation Potential

• Describe the target market, the performance or market constraints that will affect
successful commercialisation, and the anticipated market share. Report on any
market survey done to date. Please quantify the market size.

• Describe the relevance of this project’s outcomes to the Malaysian marketplace.

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5.2 Research Paper

For research oriented projects, a separate paper should be submitted following the standard
format as described below. Please use British English spelling and should adhere to the
following REQUIREMENTS. Papers that differ significantly from the stated requirements will
NOT be accepted.

5.2.1 Paper Style

Papers must be in English (British spelling preferred). Papers must be printed in two-column
format (double column on A4 paper), and in single spacing on one side of the paper only. The
font used should be Times New Roman, size 10 point (or equivalent) throughout the paper unless
indicated otherwise. The length of the paper should limited to not more than 4 pages

An abstract of 50-150 words and 4-8 keywords should be included in all the Papers and followed
by the title page on a separate sheet. Headings and subheadings for different sections of the paper
(e.g. Introduction, Methods, Result, Discussion, Conclusion) should be clearly indicated.
Detailed mathematical discussions should be placed in an appendix. Units of measurement,
abbreviations and symbols should follow the International Systems of Units (SI). Equations
should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in parentheses on the right-hand side of
the page. Special symbols should be identified in the margin.

5.2.2 Tables and Figures

Tables should be given short informative titles and should be numbered consecutively in Arabic
numerals. All figures and tables should be cited consecutively in the text and a list of captions
should be provided at the end of the paper.

5.2.3 Artwork Format

Listed below are detailed specification and format for artwork submission.
01. Graphic images and pictures = .jpg or .bmp
02. Sound and audio files = .wav
03. Movie and video files = .avi or .mpg

5.2.4 Reference and Reference Section

This section should be used only for references to previous work. Additional information, such
as experimental details, etc., should be incorporated into the text. References should be
numbered in the sequence in which they occur in the text, cited by superior numbers. References
should be listed at the end of the paper in the reference section in the numerical order they appear
in the text.

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References should be listed in the following style:

[1] Clark, J. K. Complications in academia: Sexual harassment and the law. Siecus Report [CD-
ROM], 21(6), 6-10. Available: 1994 SIRS/SIRS 1993 School/Volume 4/Article 93A [1995, June
13].

[2] H.K.Low, H.T.Chuah and H.T.Ewe, “A Neural Network Landuse Classifier for SAR Images
using Textural and Fractal Information”, Geocarto International, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1999, pp. 67-74

[3] Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology [online]. 3rd ed. New York : John
Wiley, 1984 [cited 3 January 1990]. DIALOG Information Services, Palo Alto (Calif.).

If a publication is in press, the references should be made as complete as possible, e.g., stating
the name of the journal and adding “in press”.

You may refer to the sample paper available at

http://cyberscape.mmu.edu.my/Paper/csjPaper.doc

6 Guidelines for Report Preparation

This section describes the publication guidelines for preparation of both the Interim and Final
Reports described in the previous section.

6.1 Cover and Title Page

The cover of the Final Report must contain the project title, author names, session name, faculty,
and school identification. For the hard cover copy this information must be typed in boldface
(gold) capital letter. The minimum size for the letter is 5mm in height and the spacing is shown
in Figure 1. The hard copy cover must be in blue.

The author name, project title and session will also in bold gold on the spine as shown in figure
2.

The title page of the Final Report must adhere to the format approved by the Faculty as shown in
Figure 3.

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Figure 1. Layout for The Cover of The Final Report

50 mm from the top of the page

45 mm from the left margin 45 mm from the left margin

RESEARCH ON E-COMMERCE
FULFILLMENT SYSTEMS

Title of Final Year Project

Typeface: Times New Roman
Font size: 20

NURUL NADIA AHMAD

NORANIZA HUSSAIN Name of Candidate

Typeface: Times New Roman
SESSION 2006/2007 Font size: 16
Session
Typeface: Times New Roman
Font size: 12

FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY
Faculty, Name of University and
SEPTEMBER 2007 Month & Year of the project
submission
Typeface: Times New Roman
Font size: 12

50mm from the bottom of the page

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Figure 2: Layout of Spine of the Final Report

20 mm from the top of the spine

NORANIZA HUSSAIN
NURUL NADIA AHMAD

Name of Candidate
Typeface: Times New Roman
Font size: 14
RESEARCH ON E COMMERCE
FULFILLMET SYSTEMS

Title of final year project

Typeface: Times New
Roman
Font size: 14
2006/2007

Session
Session

Typeface: Times New

Roman
Font size: 14

20 mm from the bottom of the spine

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6.2 Document Layout

The following are the guidelines for preparing your Final Report:

* Use only high-quality A4 70-gram paper

* Any typographical errors must be carefully corrected. Any pages that contain poorly
made corrections will be rejected.

* The minimum-sized page margins are as follows:

Left 40mm
Top 40mm
Right and bottom 25mm

* Double spacing should be use in preparing the report except for tables or charts where
single spacing is allowed.

* Any normal font size and common font type is acceptable, but the type and size must
remain consistent throughout the report. The font type for charts, graphs, and diagrams
may be different based on their size and layout.

* Only ‘letter quality’ or ‘near letter quality’ printing will be acceptable.

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Figure 3: Layout of Title Page of the Final Report

50 mm from the top of the page

45 mm from the left margin 45 mm from the right margin

RESEARCH ON E-COMMERCE
FUFILLMENT SYSTEMS
BY Title of project
Typeface: Times New Roman
Font Size: 20

NURUL NADIA AHMAD

Name of candidate
Typeface: Times New Roman
NORANIZA HUSSAIN Font Size: 16

SESSION 2006/2007

THE PROJECT REPORT IS PREPARED FOR

FACULTY OF INFOR MATION TECHNOLOGY
MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
FOR
Degree and Faculty
BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Enrolled
B.IT (HONS) SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Typeface: Times New
Roman
FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Font size: 12

MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY
Name of University
Typeface: Times New Roman SEPTEMBER 2007
Font size: 16

Month & Year of Project 50 mm from the bottom of the page

submission
5.3 Illustrations
Typeface: Times New Roman
Font size: 12

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Illustrations can be a real enhancement to your report, breaking up long blocks of text and
providing relief for both the eye and the mind. The original of an illustration is preferred, but
reduced scale black-and-white or color photocopy is acceptable. Illustrations should be pasted
onto the page with library paste. Microfiche materials should be put into an envelope before they
are pasted onto the page. Computer printouts can be included in the report in either their original
form or as a photocopy. If the original is too big the size can be reduced up to 50%. For all
materials the minimum left margin is 40mm.

6.3 Quoted Material

If you take an illustration or more than a few words of text from a book or other source you must
quote it and give the source. Using the words or pictures of others without explicitly
acknowledging them is plagiarism, a serious violation of scientific ethics. When you use the
words of others, you must place quote marks around the material that you have taken and follow
the quote with a reference to the work from which the material was taken. There are many forms
of reference. One of the most common is to use the author’s name followed by the year of
publication and the page number containing the quoted material. This reference will then be
included in the Bibliography at the end of your report. For example: An algorithm is defined as
a “well ordered sequence of primitive operations that halts in a finite amount of time.” [Smith
1995, p. 123]

6.4 Data Presentation

One of the most important parts of the report is the presentation of results. However, do not
simply include massive printouts of raw data. That will be virtually unintelligible to a reader.
Instead, organize and present your data in a way that focuses on and highlights the important
ideas. It may be a table, chart, or graph, but be sure to spend adequate time preparing high-
quality visualization aids that enhance your final report.

All of your tables, charts, figures, and graphs should be numbered and have titles. Both the
number and the title should be centered either directly above or directly below the table. Use
something like the following figure numbering scheme:

Figure 1-2. Graph of Average Running Time

where the digit 1 in the figure number is the chapter where the figure is contained, the digit 2 is
simply a sequential number within the chapter that uniquely identifies this figure, and “Graph of
Average Running Time” is the title of this figure.

Here are some other things to remember when presenting your results:

* All rows and columns should have an appropriate title

* All units should be clearly indicated
* Tables should be referred to in the text by their figure number
* The analysis and meaning of the values contained in the table should
be fully elaborated in the body of the text.

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* Make the visual large enough that all the text and data values can
be easily read.
* Where appropriate, use color to highlight your chart and make it
easier to understand and interpret.

6.5 References

As was mentioned earlier, any material taken from another source must be identified, and a brief
reference to its source included in the text. A complete reference to the document is included in
the References at the end of your report. There are a number of possible ways to provide
references. Here are three common and acceptable techniques and method A is the preferred
method.

Method A: Use sequential integers to refer to Reference entries

In the text: The formula was first described in [1].

In the References: [1] Bungey, J.H., “Ultrasonic Pulse Tests on High Aluminum
Cement”, Journal of Concrete, Vol. 8, No. 9, Sept. 1974 , pg 40-41
Or [1] Bungey, J.H., “Ultrasonic Pulse Tests on High Aluminum
Cement”, Journal of Concrete, Vol. 8, No. 9, Sept. 1974 , pg 40-41
***Note: you may choose to underline instead of italicize the text

Method B: Using the author’s name and publication date:

In the text: The formula was first described in (Bungey, 1974)

In the References: Bungey, J.H, “Ultrasonic Pulse Tests of High Aluminum Cement”,
Journal of Cement, Vol. 8 , No.9, Sept. 1974, pg 40-41

In the References, list the references in alphabetical order by author surname and year of
publication. If there is more that one publication in the same year by the same author, a small
letter is added to the date, for example, (Bungey, 1974a) (Bungey, 1974b).

Method C: Use footnotes

In the text: The formula was first described in 1974.1

In the Bibliography: Usually, the reference is included at the bottom of the page
containing the footnote rather than in the Bibliography.

1
J.H. Bungey, Journal of Concrete, Volume 8, No. 9, September, 1974, pg. 40-41

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6.5.1 Format for Bibliographic Entries

The format for Bibliographic entries and references for different types of written materials is
shown below.

Books: Anti, J.M. and Ryan, P.V.S., “Civil Engineering Construction”, 3rd Ed.,
Sydney, Angus and Robertson, London, 1967, 631 pages

Journal: Downs, R.B., “The Military Approach to Soil Stabilization”, Journal of

the Institute of Highway Engineers, London, Volume XIX, No. 3, March, 1972,
pg 19-23

Monograph: Body, D.M., “Flood Estimation”. Water Res. Board of Australia. No.4,
1959, 41 pages

Thesis: Marques, J.L.G.,”A Study of Anchorage Capacities of Confined Bentbar

Reinforcement”. Ph.D. Thesis, Rice University, Houston Texas May, 1988

Conf. Lea, F.M., “Cement Research: Retrospect and Prospect” in Proc. 4th
Proceedings: International Symposium on the Chemistry of Cement , Washington DC, 1960, pg
5-6

Web Page: Smith, A. B., “Description of the Intel P6 Processor”, Intel Corp.,
http://www.intel.com/pentium/p6/description.htm. Accessed on 12 September
2005

Working Kuo, C and Sayer, P, “Education of Engineers in Marine Technology”,

Paper: presented at the World Conference on Education in Applied Engineering &
Engineering Technology Cologne German, 16-19 April, 1984

Standards: British Standard Institute, “BS 6000:1972, Guide to the use of BS 6001, sampling
procedures and tables for inspection by attributes”, London, 50 pages

6.6 Other Points to Note on Writing Report

1. A thesis should be written according to the intended group of reader. It should be

in a logic form with strong explanation to convince the reader on the conclusion of the
thesis. It should be written in good language and easy to understand . Any technical
language or daily language should be avoided. As far as possible all statements must be
supported by numbers and data.

2. The writer should be able to defend all statements by referring to a reliable

research or the research findings.

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3. Symbols or nomenclature used should be defined. Standard symbols or acronym

normally accepted in Engineering field can be used. International System Unit (S.I)
should be used. If you use other units, SI equivalent unit should be in bracket.

4. Equations and formulae should be typed. Avoid using more the necessary lines
by giving alternatives, for example :

(y/x) = ax + b preferred compared to :

y = ax + b
x

5. Diagram can include graphs and figures. It can be numbered together or

separately with photograph. Diagrams should be easy to understand. Every diagram
should be numbered using the Arabic number at the bottom (if possible different for each
chapter) and should be given an informative title.

Pictures should be pasted on the page, numbered and titled.

(i) Every diagram should have relevant title and should be numbered.

(ii) Coordinate units (abscissa) should be written clearly in the graph.

(iii) All the data points and lines should be clear - generally it should not be
more than 2 or 3 curves in every diagram

(iv) Types of different data points must be shown in a legend.

(v) Every diagram should be referred and elaborated in the text.

(vi) The gridlines should be in appropriate intervals.

6.7 Binding

For Hard Cover

1 blank sheet of paper should be put before the first type page and another blank paper
should be attached before the back cover.

For Soft Copy

For binding purposes, the title page should be put immediately after the front
cover followed by the blank sheet. Another blank sheet should be attached before
the back cover.

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7 Final Year Project Meeting Log

Each student must submit following FYP Meeting Log sheet to supervisor at
every meeting. The Meeting Log should be attached as appendix to FYP report.

Faculty of Information Technology

Final Year Project Meeting Log

MEETING DATE: MEETING NO.:

PROJECT ID:
PROJECT TITLE :
SESSION : SUPERVISOR :
STUDENT ID & Name: CO- SUPERVISOR :

1. WORK DONE
[Please write the details of the work done after the last meeting.]

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 FIT FYP Guidelines Revised on 2 Oct 2006

2. WORK TO BE DONE

3. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

4. COMMENTS

…………………………… …………………………...
Supervisor’s Signature Student’s Signature

……………………………..
Co-Supervisor’s Signature

NOTES:
1. Items 1 – 3 are to be completed by the students before coming for the meeting. Item 4 is to
be completed by the supervisor.
2. For FYP-1, total three log sheets are to be submitted (every week*).
3. For FYP-2, total six log sheets are to be submitted (every other week**).
4. Log sheets are compulsory assessment criteria for FYP. Student who fails to meet the
requirements of log sheets will not be allowed to submit FYP report.

*: week 3-5 of the second trimester (week 6: report submission, weeks 7&8: presentation)
**: week 1,3, 5, 7, 9, 11 or 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 of the third trimester (week 12: report submission,
weeks 13&14: presentation)

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