6047CEM - Writing a Project Proposal

Project Proposal? (1)

What is a Project Proposal?

A document that provides a detailed description of the project
Outline of the research process
- provides the supervisor a summary of information you want to do for the project
The main goal is to write a proposal to describe:
- what do you want to do?
- how will you do it?
- what do you expect the result to be?
Determines whether the project is viable
Makes a case that your project is valuable and necessary

A project proposal is a document in which you provide a detailed description of the project you will be undertaking. By now I would have hoped that you, and your supervisor, have come to an agreement on the project that you will be undertaking. This will include details pertaining to:

a draft version of a working project title
- remember, this is a draft; do not get too caught up on finessing the title
- this will change several times over the course of the project
the domain of study
- what is the topic area
- is it penetration testing, networking, forensics, autonomous vehicles or social engineering?
the audience and motivation for your project
- this should cover details such as why are you doing this project?
- is it something that has not been covered or previously thought about before?
- who is the outcome of the project for the audience?
  - is it for other researchers, an organisation or just for greater knowledge?
what is the expected outcome from your project?
- there should be some method of result collection and analysis
- even if you are implementing a piece of software or creating a framework, there should be some rigorous testing and/or some sort of feedback
- there should be a method of statistical analysis being performed upon the results you have collected; it is not okay to just say: “100% of respondents liked my framework” and leave it at that.
- therefore, think about how you can analyse the results you collect and what method of collecting the data may be required

By writing this project proposal, it should make it clear to yourself whether the project is viable or not. By writing down your thoughts and reading back through them, it can help you decide whether the project is sensible. Is it too broad or narrow? Do you have the resources and technical knowledge to complete this project?

If at the end of the draft version of the proposal and you are doubting the viability of your project, speak to your supervisor. They have managed many projects over their time within academia, therefore, they can affirm whether your project is worthwhile or not. However, I would hope that after a draft proposal has been completed, there should be no doubt or question on whether your project is viable or not. You should have been discussing with your supervisor the in and out of your project before getting to this stage.

If you feel it is necessary, ask the supervisor to read through your proposal before submission. Ask them to point out whether there is anything missing that is clear, and you may have missed. However, do not send them a draft proposal two or three days before submission. Remember, we are busy people, and we have teaching commitments on other modules etc. It is also at the discretion of the supervisor whether they will read drafts or not, it is not a given. I, personally, prefer to read a draft and then provide feedback prior to submission. However, I cannot do that for all of you, otherwise I would be getting little sleep.

Project Proposal? (2)

Structure of the Project Proposal

The project proposal is made up of the following components:
1. Title
2. Topic
3. Audience and Motivation
4. Primary Research Plan
There is no literature review
- although you may want to reference papers in the topic section
There is a strict word limit, 750 words

If you have already seen the assignment brief for the first piece of assessment, then this should not be new to you. The proposal is made up of the following components:

the project title
the topic and field of study
the audience and motivation for your project
and finally, the primary research plan

Unlike previous iterations of this module, and what may be known in the greater community of students, there is no literature review for this assignment. However, this is not me saying that you should not have references to this body of work. A well written topic section may include references to other academic papers to reinforce the importance of your project and why it is viable.

There is a strict word limit for this assignment, 750 words, and I would recommend you try and keep within 10% of this limit. There is no penalty applied to this assignment. Terry and I felt it was not right for us to penalise a student for their own contribution to research. However, if you are going to go above this limit, I would recommend speaking to your supervisor and getting their permission. They may feel that you may have unnecessary work to ask you to remove certain paragraphs or sentences from the proposal.

Project Proposal? (3)

Creating a Project Title

The project title consists of the following characteristics:
- concise but descriptive
- precise and consistent
It will highlight the following:
- the purpose of the project
- the context and outcomes
- the research strategy that has been adopted
Guidelines for students to follow:
- avoid the use of acronyms, initialisms or abbreviations
- avoid the use of a teasing or cute title

When it comes to creating a title for a project, it should meet the four characteristics as outlined on the screen, and they are: concise, descriptive, precise and consistent.

The title of your project should be concise, but descriptive. This means it should give the reader a good insight into what your project is about, without the requirement to read the abstract of the report. The title should highlight the purpose of the project, which would often include the context, outcomes and important aspects of the research strategy that has been adopted. A poorly constructed title could potentially mislead the reader into thinking the project is something that it is not; as such, confusing them from the offset.

As I have mentioned, the title should also be descriptive and not too general. Each word you have chosen in the title has some meaning and will help the reader understand the core focus of your project. It should not be something general, but instead it should be descriptive and explanatory. The title will be used to explain some of the following:

the purpose of the project
the theory (or theories) that are underpinning your project
the variables you have examined or tested
the methodology you have adopted
and, the context and/or the population that has been studied

The title should also be precise. It is wrong to think that your title is short, instead think of it being concise. You should aim to try and explain the nature of your project in a few words as possible. For example, instead of saying “users of Aula”, you could shorten this to become “Aula users”. If your title breaks the formatting of the Microsoft Word or LaTeX template I provide, then you are doing something wrong, and you will want to revisit the title of your project.

Another aspect of the title to consider is whether it is consistent. You need to ensure that the title you provide is relating to the research that has been undertaken. You do not want to mislead the reader into thinking the project is something that it is not. For example, if you had mentioned you use a “case-study approach” in the title, the reader would then expect to see the words “case study approach” in the abstract, introduction and methodology chapters. This may seem obvious, but it is common to see some inconsistency in bodies of work submitted by the students. You will also want to ensue that you do not confuse the reader by using terms interchangeably. This can be easily fixed, ensure that each component of your title reflects the research that has been undertaken. Being consistent with the language used in the title and the body of your report is a good start.

Finally, let’s touch upon some things that a title should avoid doing. Try and avoid the use of abbreviations, acronyms and initials in a title. This may seem fairly obvious, but by using these in a title it can lead to confusion as the reader may interpret an initialism as something completely different to what you were intending. You will want to save using those for the main body of your report.

You will also want to try and refrain from using a teasing or “cute” title. Whilst a teasing or cute title may spark interest, it can be confusing and make it harder for a reader to understand the nature of the dissertation before they read your abstract. For example, a title such as “something old, something new: how pentesting could highlight security issues in IoT devices” may sound interesting and definitely grab a reader’s attention; but it could also be misleading and confusing, have you done something new? Or are you just following a tutorial? the something old.

Project Proposal? (4)

Describing the Projects Topic

Describe a specific topic or domain of study that the project sits within
Be specific and identify a topic that is not too broad
- i.e. “Implementing and Distributing HoneyPots to analyse the effects of…”
Do not choose a project that an answer is already known
Provide a list of artefacts/expected outcomes
- do not include the project report

The second component of the project proposal is the project topic. In this section of the proposal, you will need to describe the specific topic area or domain of study that your project sits within. For example, are you looking at the security of IoT devices, then you may consider this to fit within the realms of penetration testing etc.

You will want to be specific and identify a topic that is not too broad. For example, “implementing and distributing honeypots to analyse the effects of” is an appropriate beginning for a title. It clearly states what is expected to be done, that is the implementing and distribution part, and then discusses a topic of cyber security - honeypots. It then leads on to explain what it would be analysing based upon the data they have collected. However, ensure to expand upon this in the body of your proposal.

It is important that you do not choose a topic that an answer is already known for. Terry touched upon this in his lecture and about re-inventing the wheel. The wheel is round, and we do not foresee that changing. Unless you can provide good reasoning as to why it should be square, through a rigorous and academic study.

It has been seen many times before, whereby students want to perform penetration testing attacks on IoT devices and ensure they comply with the principals of OWASP Top 10 for IoT. Fantastic, but these guidelines were available since its initial publication in 2018. Manufacturers are becoming more concerned about the security of their products and are beginning to implement strategies to overcome brute-force attacks on easily guessable passwords etc. So why would you want to repeat this project? Well, the answer to that would be to do something new. Therefore, if you do want to pentest IoT devices, then you will want to consider what can you do different to the existing research that is already out there. You most certainly would not want to be following the OWASP guidelines considering how dated they are.

It is also common to see students choose devices that were manufactured prior to the 2018 list being published. As such, it is going to be expected that these products are insecure. You may want to consider testing IoT devices manufactured after 2020 and see if manufactures have stuck by these principals.

Finally, for this section of the project proposal, it should consist of a list of outcomes (or artefacts) that you expect to be delivered from the project. Do not include the project report, as this is a given. Instead, we would expect to see things such as an implementation (if you are coding something), what is the implementation and what are the expected outcomes that can be performed by this? Think about the type of results and data you will be collecting; will there be videos or surveys that will be undertaken, etc.

Thinking about this now, it will ensure that you have these deliverables or outcomes at the end of your project, and you know whether the project was successful (or not, as sometimes a project can fail). Which leads me to a short discussion about a failed project.

Failing a project is not a bad thing. Well, that is assuming you have done the work to the best of you ability and not left it two days before the deadline. If you have managed to implement something and the results were not as expected, there is still scope for you to discuss why things did not happen as you expected them to do so.

Project Proposal? (5)

Highlighting the Audience and Motivation of the Project

Provide justification for why the project is important
- also justify who it is important for
The project will address a research question
- the outcome from this will be an artefact
- this is your main motivation
You may want to address the following:
- who is going to benefit from the findings of the project?
- how will they benefit?

The third section for the project proposal is the audience and motivation part. In this section, you will want to provide a justification as to why your project is important. What are you doing that is different compared to similar research in the area? Here, you may want to reference other bodies of work and explain what would be different about your approach. However, be careful not to enter the realm of writing a literature review, i.e. critiquing the work you are referencing to. You will also want to provide a justification as to who this project is important for. Are you doing some work on behalf of an organisation or business? Are you doing this project to build-upon the knowledge that is already in the topic area?

Regarding the motivation of the project, your main motivation is to answer a research question and provide some form of artefact. However, there may also be another motivation for the project to be undertaken — i.e. a personal interest in the field, or you are working on a project for an organisation.

Finally, you will want to address aspects concerning who is going to be benefiting from the findings of your project and how will they benefit. For example, if you are implementing something for a business, you need to state this and explain how they would potentially benefit from the artefact you have implemented.

Project Proposal? (6)

Generating a Primary Research Plan

Consider the conduct of the project
- what data will you be using and collecting?
- which primary research methodology will you be following?
Primary research method must be included
- i.e. experiments, applications or software demonstrators, process models etc.
This project is not an extended literature review
- i.e. re-analysing data and findings from previous research and forming your own conclusion
Provide a timeline of the project
- an overview of tasks/proposed activities
- should cover the whole project, i.e. proposal, research, implementation etc.

The final section of the assignment is the primary research plan. Here, you will need to consider the primary research plan of your project. This will cover aspects such as deciding the type of data you will be collecting and what choice of methodology you will be relying on for your research.

The first step of your primary research is to decide on the type of data that you will be using for your project. Generally, you will choose from either primary or secondary data. Typically, a primary research plan will consider using primary data; however, your project may be different and choose to use secondary.

You will also want to consider the primary research methodology that you will be undertaking. There are generally two types of primary research methods, qualitative and quantitative research. However, you may choose a hybrid approach and use a mixture of these two methods. Your primary research method must employ some kind of experiment, application or software demonstrators or a process model. There must be some sort of outcome and analysis of data that you have collected. It cannot just be an extended literature review, and you provide your own analysis on findings from the secondary data.

You will also want to provide an overview of the tasks and proposed activities that will be undertaken during your project. This will be in the form of a Gantt chart and should cover the entirety of the project. It is not just a list of report chapters and how long will be spent on writing each one. You will also want to include times of a meeting with your supervisor, resource collection, etc. You will be introduced to project management and Gantt charts in week three, whereby I explain what is expected from a Gantt chart.

Project Proposal? (6)

Project Proposal Template

Two templates are provided for your proposal
- LaTeX
- Microsoft Word
Use a template you will be most familiar with
- if you do not know LaTeX, do not use it!
There are no marks associated with which template you use
However, it is imperative you stick to the template and sections provided

Writing a Project Proposal

Dr Ian Cornelius

Hello

Project Proposal

Project Proposal? (1)

What is a Project Proposal?

Project Proposal? (2)

Structure of the Project Proposal

Project Proposal? (3)

Creating a Project Title

Project Proposal? (4)

Describing the Projects Topic

Project Proposal? (5)

Highlighting the Audience and Motivation of the Project

Project Proposal? (6)

Generating a Primary Research Plan

Project Proposal? (6)

Project Proposal Template

Goodbye

Goodbye (1)

Questions and Support