Project Preparation Guidelines

The Topic
• The topic of the project is very important. It should be very
well defined and should not be vague at all
• The topic should be both brief and yet self-explanatory
• For example, in case you wish to determine the level of
satisfaction amongst the employees of an organization
with regard to the HR policies followed by the company,
then you topic should NOT be like: “Employee Satisfaction
Survey”. Your topic should then read like: “A Study to
determine the level of Satisfaction with HR policies
amongst the employees of XYZ Ltd.”
 Few topics in different disciplines
• Marketing
– Customer Relationship Management in XYZ company
– Competition Analysis for IT sector
– Effectiveness of Sales Promotion & Advertising in Insurance
Companies
• Finance
– Mergers & Acquisitions in Manufacturing /Banking Industry
– Future of derivatives in India
– Study of growth prospects of Mutual Funds
 Few topics in different disciplines
• Operations
– Impact of information technology in supply chain design and
control.
– Innovations in production scheduling techniques.
– Green operations and Green supply chain management.
– Sustainable supply chain management strategies and practices.

• Human Resources
– 360 degree Appraisal at INFOSYS
– Performance Appraisal Techniques /Methods at XYZ Company
– Competency Mapping /Model at any organization
 The Topic
Selection of Topic:
When deciding on a topic, there are a few things that you will
need to do:
a. Brainstorm for ideas
b. Choose a topic related to your major specialization that will enable
you to read and understand the literature
c. Ensure that the topic is manageable and that material is available
d. Define your topic as a focused research question
e. Research and read more about your topic
f. Formulate a Synopsis
 Objective and scope (10 marks)
• Formulating the objectives and determining the scope of
the project are the most important steps that will
determine the eventual outcome of your project.
• Your objectives should be brief and to the point and be
relevant to the title of the project and the expected
outcomes of the project.
• The scope determines the context of the project and its
boundaries and as such, is of equal importance to the
objectives laid out.
 Objective and scope
• You must keep in mind that the objectives are your
guidelines for the project and you should have realistic
and realisable objectives.
• Do not put down objectives like – “Determining the scale of
the problems of attrition in the BPO sector”. This objective
would take you an inordinate amount of time to
accomplish properly. Instead have a focused and narrow
approach by stating – “To determine the potential reasons
for attrition at XYZ Co. Ltd.”.
 Study methodology for data collection (20 marks)
• Methodology put simply, means the way in which you
would be going about with your project as whole.
• It is in complete relation to your stated objectives and
would ideally include details like the mode of conducting
your research, your target audience, your sample size,
your target area, details on the books and journals you
would be referring to and a list of the various tools that
you would be using in order to analyse the data you have
collected.
• To simplify, the process of data collection can be broken
down into two parts:
– Primary Data
– Secondary Data
 Study methodology for data collection
• Part 1 – Primary Data
– This would be basically all data that you would be collecting
yourself and not referring to other textbooks or online resources.
You would use questionnaires, interviews and such tools to gather
this data. This data needs to be gathered in person by you. Your
project report will analyse this data.
• Part 2 – Secondary Data
– This includes all data that you gather during your research from
existing textbooks and online resources. This would typically be
restricted to a background survey about the company under study,
theoretical foundations of the topic at hand and general
information about the environment in relation to the topic.
• (You must be careful that your method does not give rise to
a whole lot of irrelevant data)
 Study methodology for data collection
Methodology Page Sample:
1. Sources of data –
a. Primary – questionnaires/interviews etc.
b. Secondary – Reference books and specific websites, not simply
www.google.com or www.wikipedia.org (the entire list of references
should be given)
2. Type of research ‐ quantitative / qualitative, exploratory /
descriptive / causal
3. Target audience/respondents (people whom you would contact for
answers)
4. Sampling plan ‐ sample selection method, sampling frame used (if
any)
5. Sample size (total number of filled up responses you expect to get)
6. Type of survey ‐ personal, telephonic, mail‐intercept etc.
 Analysis of data, tools and techniques (15 marks)
• The primary data should be collected by the questionnaire
method.
• All questionnaires to the respondents should be coded and
properly filled‐up.
• All questionnaires must have respondents name,
designation, Organization name, Address and mobile no’s.
• You must mention various statistical tools viz. univariate
statistical tools or bivariate statistical tools or
multivariate statistical tools or any other business related
analytical tools etc. applied for the analysis of your data.
• Also reflect the various formulae of these applied tools.
 Understanding of the subject and conceptualization (10 marks)
of the Key areas

• The “study Methodology” section described in detail how

the study was conducted.
• Further you have to enable a reader to evaluate the
appropriateness of your methods and the reliability and
the validity of your results.
• It also permits experienced investigators to replicate the
study if they so desire.
 Understanding of the subject and conceptualization (10 marks)
of the Key areas
• Appropriate identification of research subjects and
clientele is critical, particularly for assessing the results
(making comparisons across groups); generalizing the
findings; and making comparisons in replications,
literature reviews, or secondary data analyses.
• Present the detailed procedure by summarizing each step
in the execution of the research.
• Remember that the “Research conceptualization” section
should tell the reader what you did and how you did it in
sufficient detail so that a reader could reasonably replicate
your study.
 Understanding of the subject and conceptualization
of the Key areas
• Report Standard deviation and median for each
demographic variable.
• Describe the organization surveyed in terms of its core
activities, culture, size, geographic spread, nature of
functioning, etc.
• Provide details about the profile of respondents in terms of
their hierarchical levels, reporting relationships, etc.
• Describe each questionnaire used by providing dimensions,
number of items, scoring scale (e.g., "0=not at all; 1=Once
in a while..."), etc.
 Innovative techniques/approach to problem scheme (15 marks)

• Use the best techniques so that your readers should

receive clear, unambiguous, and direct answers.
• Analyse the implications and use of your findings.
 Conclusions drawn (10 marks)
• Develop your argument logically with the help of charts,
figures and tables to build your theme, presenting data
wherever necessary.
• Spend more time on the central issues, giving them
importance, clarity and emphasis.
• While writing the conclusion lay emphasis in brief manner
on only very significant results.
• You may also mention the impact of your research for the
organizations you have studied as well as if further
research required in the area.
 Recommendations, usefulness implementation
scheme (10 marks)
• You are free to examine, interpret, and qualify the results,
as well as to draw inferences from them. Emphasize any
theoretical consequences of the results and the validity of
your conclusions.
• Acknowledge limitations, and address alternative
explanations of results.
• In this section, you might briefly return to a discussion of
why the problem is important (as stated in the
introduction); what larger issues, those that transcend the
particulars of the subfield, might hinge on the findings;
and what propositions are confirmed or disconfirmed by
the extrapolation of these findings to such overarching
issues.
 Recommendations, usefulness implementation
scheme
You may also consider the following issues:
(1) What is the theoretical or practical implications of the outcomes, and
what is the basis for these interpretations? If the findings are valid and
replicable, what real-life phenomena might be explained or modeled by
the results?
(2) What problems remain unresolved or arise because of these findings?
 Linking of recommendations to the objectives (5 marks)
• Justify why readers both inside and outside your own
specialty should attend to the findings.

• Your readers should receive clear, unambiguous, and direct

answers the problem statement.
 Bibliography (5 marks)
• A bibliography is a list of published sources consulted
during the course of project work and normally includes all
work listed in the text and text notes.
• The bibliography can be listed in alphabetical order or
split into two separate list each covering books and
articles.
• Follow APA style (www.apastyle.org) for writing the
references as reflected in the guidelines.
 Submission guidelines
• The project shall be from the area of specialization of Post
graduate diploma program however the students of
PGDBM program will have the option to do project in
Marketing, HR, Operations or Finance.
• Minimum No. of Pages is 50 but not more than 100. Final
project report needs to be typed using MS-Word.
• Pls. convert the typed MS-Word file to PDF format and
only then upload in portal.
• No handwritten or scanned image file submitted will be
considered and will be awarded zero.