Interim Progress Report (IPR) - Guidelines and Requirements

Section 1: Introduction and Overview

You should have done about 6 weeks work on your project by the time you submit your Interim Progress Report (IPR). We expect you will have made significant inroads into your practical investigation, as well as carrying out background research. You should prepare a written report on the progress you have made. This report should be aimed at a technically competent reader who knows nothing about your project, such as the independent second marker. Say how far you have got: tell us what you have completed, why you have done it. Discuss problems should be numbered in one continuous sequence. You will receive marks based on the quality of the project, the quality and amount of the practical work, your report structure and the presentation of your report. Do the report as follows:

Section 1: Introduction and overview

It is suggested that this section should be about 2-3 pages long in total, and you may add any appropriate section or sub-section headings you wish to this list. You may reuse parts of your project proposal if appropriate [and in turn you may re-use parts of the Interim Progress Report (IPR)in your final report]. Describe the research question your project sets out to address and the practical investigation you have planned to address that question. Describe any technical work that you are undertaking as part of that investigation, such as the construction of data sets or software apparatus. Say what tools and techniques you are using for your investigation, experimentation, and evaluation of your work. You should list the specific deliverables you intend to produce during your project: design, documents, programs, questionnaires, databases, test plans, experimental designs, results, etc.   

Section 2: Progress to date

Again, it is suggested that you write about 2-3 pages and add an appropriate section heading and any necessary sub-headings. Describe the progress you have made so far i.e. what you have done. Be specific.  Problems encountered or anticipated and steps taken/to be taken to solve them. Explain the supporting evidence you can provide for the work you have done, the documents that demonstrate your achievements, and include these documents as appendices.    

Section 3: Planned work

This section is expected to be about half to 1 page in length. Again, add an appropriate section heading and any necessary sub-headings. List the major tasks that need to be completed for the project to be a success, from start to finish (including any you have already completed) with target completion dates. Explain what each task means and what deliverables it will produce. Say how you will judge the quality of your project work and how you intend to evaluate the process you have gone through. Don't forget to include writing up the final report and preparing for the demonstration/presentation after submission.   

Section 4: Bibliography List any sources that you cite in your report. You should also list any sources that you have used, even if not cited directly. Use the Harvard system for your in-text citations, and for your references, producing one list, ordered by author surname (whether the material is drawn from books, journals, web pages, forums or blogs, or is a piece of software).

Section 5: Appendices

Include supporting evidence as appendices to your report. These should be numbered (Appendix 1, Appendix 2 etc.) and each should start on a new page and be given a title. Your tutor is not required to read the appendices butmay refer to them for evidence to back up your claims.Typically, appendices will include evidence of design, investigative or practical work (e.g. ERMs, formal specifications, code, questionnaires, and so on). At this stage,it will mostly be work-in-progress, and it is finefor this to be handwritten. You may scan documents and include them with your submission if you wish; but you may not wishnot to spend too much time on tasks like scanning handwriting notes. Instead, you couldtake the materials to your next project meetingto assure the supervisorabout the progress you made.