Research Methods

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Here are some further definitions and models that can help in research.

Mind Maps
This is a tool to aid thinking and they have been around for many centuries in one form of another. A mind map is a kind of free diagram used to represent “things” which might be: words, ideas, tasks, or any other items that can be linked to and arranged around a central element or idea. Mind maps are typically used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas but in a relatively free manner and can be created and used alone or in groups. The basic idea perhaps is to use them as an aid in study or as a way of organizing problem solving as you try to trace out all the various elements and links there might be.

The elements of a given mind map are arranged randomly or intuitively to start with as they are discovered but later and according to their importance or other characteristic the map elements are classified into groups, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between them. Of these it is likely that a good choice of groups is of foremost importance because it stops the map becoming over complicated.

By presenting ideas, usually in a radial and graphical but commonly non-linear manner, mind maps can often be a way to use the brainstorming approach so elements of the map will emerge in a more or less random fashion and this is a good idea because it forces one off ones usual thought patterns. Once you establish good grouping in a mind map it is a good idea to then look for a hierarchical tree structures but their radial nature disrupts the prioritizing of concepts typically associated with hierarchies presented in a more linear visual manner. It is therefore helpful if you have software to do this because then the nodes in the mind map are easily manipulated, moved and grouped and re-grouped and there are numerous software packages available to do this.

Rich Picture
These are a kind of cartoon drawing that illustrates what is going on in a situation where appropriate boundaries have been set. A common and insidious mistake to make with these drawings is to think they allow you to “draw the problems”; they are not because to use them properly you draw what you see and hope the problem situations may emerge from that drawing. Typically we look for the following: structural elements (things that are not subject to rapid change), processes, interaction, other factual Information, add yourself and if necessary, always ask does the picture show the whole and does it show what is being done?
 
Values
It is not easy to define what is meant by values but it is generally understood to mean the belief system that underpins ones judgements in the pursuit of some ‘good’; something regarded as worth having, keeping and preserving. In this context we might cite the following as underpinning out values:

Weltanschauung - world-view or why we think and believe as we do

Hermeneutics - the ‘science’ of interpretation of written work. This is important because this is often how we arrive at a set of values.

Rules - where there are strong values one is often able to define rules of behaviour derived from those value systems unfortunately these can just be dogma or unthinking unchanging rules.

Guidelines - These are just advice notes. These are used instead of policies where it is not possible or desirable to absolutely control some activity or activities but we want to encourage some limitations.​
 
Vision – put simply a vision is where and what we want to be and ideally we want that something to intrinsically good. A vision is based on our own ethical standpoint and looks ahead hopefully but realistically being aware of our own limitations in terms of knowledge, abilities and resources but ready and willing to lean and practice so that the vision become achievable.

Mission – put simply what we are put here to do. Missions are like routes toward ones vision and are often couched in terms of the Checkland SSM root definition which uses the CATWOE criteria. The key to any good mission statement for a person or a company or any organisation is to identify an activity and a customer (beneficiary)

Customers - the beneficiaries or the victims of the system.
Actors - those who carry out the transformation activities of the system.
Transformation - what is the key system activity?
Weltanschauung - why is your system relevant from your point of view (loosely your motive)
Owner - those who have sufficient power to cause the system to exist.
Environment - what constraints are in the system?​
 
Proof of Concept - is usually taken to mean a way of testing an idea or method. Typically, it is a partial realization (or synopsis) of a method or idea to demonstrate feasibility, or demonstrate a principle. The purpose is to verify that some concept or theory is probably capable of exploitation in a useful manner. The proof of concept is most usefully considered a milestone on the way to a fully functioning prototype.

Gap Analysis - Gap analysis as its name implies, examines the gap between two states or perhaps more usefully the space between where we are and where we want to be. For example, in IT, gap analysis may be thought of as the study of the differences between two different information systems or applications in order to provide information as to how to get from one state to a new state. Gap analysis typically uses various methodologies or models and some of these are proprietary tools such a 6 Sigma but it is also quite usual to use something like SSM (Soft Systems Analysis) and that will then focus on the Agenda element to examine the gap.

Strategy – a strategy defines action specified at a high (relatively) level of resolution – that is they say what actions are needed and not necessarily how those actions are achieved in practice. It is helpful to think how a strategy might be constructed and a common way is to base it on one or more of the following items although implicitly all of them are always involved but often the best starting point is to consider issues.

V - Build your strategy on a set of values that your organisation has set or might set
I - Build your strategy by looking at issues (needs or problems if you like)
S - Build your strategy by looking at your strengths – concentrate on what you do well
A - Build your strategy based on aims that you have set or been given

C - In EVERY case of a strategy statement, you MUST consider the consequences, what might happen if you do the action stated because every action has an effect. Wisely, also consider what might happen if you don’t do it.​

The process of developing a strategy is – take any element from VISA, for example, take an issue (problem) and by a process of deduction arrive at an activity (which you must describe) or perhaps a set of activities that acting together will remove the problem. The strategic plan comprises a list the actions needed and how they will be monitored in some sensible structured manner. Often organisations have set guidelines on how plans are to be set out and when that exists you must follow them but always with a strategy choose an action because you think it will cause some change.
 
System Features
The following is a list of features that tend to characterise something as a system. As you look through them consider whether an artefact like a refrigerator is a system or not? Thus, for something to be a system it must have:

Subsystems - that is we can identify or show that parts of a larger system may themselves be systems, in which case we call them subsystems.

Behaviour - by behaviour is meant the rules that describe the relation in a system between input (what is done to it) and the output (how it responds).

Purpose - that is every system will have some purpose although in practice we may not always be able to say with any clarity what that purpose is supposed to be. You might like to consider what the differences is between the purpose say of a refrigerator and its behaviour (how it works)

Goal – this is the specifics of purpose. For example the purpose of a lawnmower is to cut grass but the gaol would be to cut a particular section of grass.

Complexity - given that systems have sub-systems (parts) having behaviour and purpose, complexity is the difficulty involved in using the relations among the parts to infer the behaviour of the whole.

Boundary – its is also possible to add the idea of a system boundary and environment so that we can think of being inside or outside of the system

Environment – linked to the idea of boundary we say that each system exists in a given context or environment.​

Types off System
There are thought to be four ways in which we might classify systems. The basic scheme was suggested by Checkland and is as follows:

Natural Systems – the butterfly, ecosystem, blood systems, etc
Designed Physical Systems – refrigerator, aeroplane, etc
Designed Abstract Systems – Darwinism, communism, etc
Human activity systems – library, banking, an office, etc​
 
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Re: Research Methods: Problem, Outcome and Actor

Emotional Intelligence
This is an area of interest at present because it offers a way for individuals to become more aware of themselves and others and hence make them in some sense more competent at their job. It is not entirely useful to try to define EI but Eaton and Johnson suggested it might be summarised as “the ability to inform our decisions with an understanding of our own and others’ emotions so that we can take productive action”.

EI literature talks about various emotional competences but we must not take this too far as then we end up as some sort of robot stoic, those who have no emotions at all, cannot feel another’s pain, or sympathize with another’s predicament, feel love or hate, joy or misery; who wants to be around people like that? The essential point is that emotionally we are all different and that is a strength; the fact is we all have emotional defects/strengths of one sort or another and we cannot get rid of/do not want to get rid of them but we can be AWARE of them and in some sense manage them and recognize them in others. For what it’s worth the literature usually defines 5 competences in this area but they are all essentially premised on the idea of a deep sense of self-awareness.

Self-Regulation - the management and control of one’s impulses and resources so as to regulate one’s self against impulsive actions, delaying instant gratification in order to remain focused.

Self-Awareness - or consciousness/sensitivity to our own emotional states and intuitions leading to recognition of their limitations and paradoxically therefore maximizing strengths.

Motivation – loosely these are emotional tendencies that facilitate the achievement of goals or you might think of it as a way of focusing internal energies and impulses on a mission to achieve excellence though any presented opportunity coupled with a considered inclination exploit them.

Empathy – strictly, this is to feel another’s pain by attuning our emotions to those of others so as to derive the knowledge and understanding of how and why other people feel, act and react the way they do in given situations, particularly when significant stress is involved.

Social Skills – enables the individual to “read” the intentions and actions of others and so adjust to or influence the operational ethos of groups so fitting into the mood, atmosphere and trust of the other team members.​

The problem with such a list is there is no ethical context implied – I might argue that surely it must at least be a “skill’ to know right from wrong.
 
Re: Research Methods Selection

Knowledge – what is it?
There is a difficult topic and philosophers for many centuries have wrestled with the idea but loosely it comes about in two ways: by perception (when we see) and by reasoning (when we think). Plato suggested that in order for something to count as knowledge at least three criteria must apply: a statement (or you can say action) must be justified, must be true, and believed although we do also require that the statement was not arrived at through a defect, flaw, or failure (Blackburn) in which case of course it was not in fact true. However there is general agreement that the following ideas are useful.

Tacit - this is knowledge that more or less equates to experiences or in simple terms knowledge that you cannot write down in order to pass it on. So it cannot be learned directly from a book it must be practiced and developed by use. For example, it might be possible to read a description of how to ride a bike but you will never have real knowledge of that until you master it yourself by riding a bike.

Implicit – this is rather like tacit knowledge; it is something like instinct, intuition or vibes, we just somehow know something and we did not explicitly learn it or practice it.

Explicit – this is knowledge that is easily (in principle) shared as we have a common language medium by which to disseminate it. That is you can pick up for example a book and gain knowledge about Anglo Saxon’s in England. Notice that one is not learning a skill here as there is no practicing of the knowledge as such.​
 
I hope you find this post helpful as it deals with important elements that are invariably poorly understood and sadly, often badly written.

Scope and Scale
Scope and scale are meant to be considered carefully otherwise a project may become out of control and beyond ones capabilities in the time available or be set so that the problem becomes trivial. So please take note of what these terms mean as far as your project is concerned.

Scope (selection) – this means something like selection or choice. So for example, if I were looking at training in desk-top packages I might select just Excel or I might select Excel and Access and so on to focus on. The point is I set my scope by being selective in what I study.

Scale (extent) – this means something like number or extent. So for example if I set my scope as looking at Excel I now need to set the number of users I will include in my study​

Aim
This expresses the overall activity for generating a final project outcome. A project should have just ONE aim. It is usually thought to have four elements: whole project outcome, an activity, a target and a data spotlight (OATS). So we might write “To examine (activity) Real Estate processes (spotlight) in order to generate a position paper (project outcome) on the relationship between government certification requirements and its impact on IT training standards in this industry.

Objective
This is usually taken to mean a statement about an activity that focuses on some defined data and leads to a given milestone in a project. It is best thought of as having three elements: the activity, the data to be used and the generated milestone (ASM). For example I might write “categorise” (activity) student responses to feedback (spotlighted data) and present all that in a catalogue (milestone). It might be helpful to you if you think of the milestone as a kind of “proof” that you have done something. In a student project or dissertation might have 4 or 5 objectives expressed progressively so one each build on the previous one.
 
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Re: Research Methods: Proof?

SMART
This is just a way of thinking about projects and their essential elements. It is a little circular in its working but the basic idea is that once you have an overall project plan you need to turn your attention to developing goals or you can say objectives that will enable you to be successful. The idea is simple and in some ways obvious but the trouble is that it does not tell you how to get any of these very desirable features. In summary, Goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time-based however it does have a number of slightly different variations in the literature.

Just a simple example, a goal/objective might be to hold a weekly meeting with project team members but the one key idea that binds the above 5 elements together is to make sure there is always a milestone; that is an artefact that can be seen and used to MARK that progress ha been made. In the case of the meeting mentioned above it might be a list of actions or a summary or a report that sort of thing. Essentially, we say that if there is no milestone (a kind of “proof”) then there has been no activity either. In the meeting case if there is no milestone then for all practical purposes we say the meeting did not take place.

Specific or one might say significant as made clear in the statement of milestone
Measurable and meaningful (hence the milestone) and that of itself might be motivational
Agreed upon with stakeholders but must be attainable and acceptable but action-oriented
Realistic in the sense of relevance and rewards within available resources so results-oriented
Time-based meaning timely, enough time, tangible (hence the milestone) and trackable​
 
Re: Research Methods: Cautions

Ethical Viewpoint
Ethics is about right and wrong and mostly manifests itself as questions about intention and outcome. If you like you have an intention to produce an outcome of some kind and so need to ask is that outcome right or wrong. It is very hard to compress ethics into a few lines and if you look you will find a huge number of books and papers on the subject.

In the modern world it is simply not possible to just be dogmatic and say this is right and that is wrong although we see it everyday in religious writings. This is not to say we do not follow a particular religious persuasion but that is a personal choice and not every one holds to it. It follows therefore Instead what we must do is construct arguments about what is ethically acceptable based on some empirical but agreed principles and nothing else will really do. Mary Warnock summed up these principles as follows:

Sympathy – that is when you decide and action you must think about (be sympathetic) to those that might be involved directly or indirectly.

Altruism (Unselfishness) – being ethical is not about satisfying your own position or your company and may mean sacrifice for you or others.

Imagination - this might sound like an odd idea but unless you use your imagination you will simply be unable to feel what it is like for anyone else or see what consequences there are. In a very real way imagination underpins the whole of ethics.​

These ideas are general; one might even say universal and as such might be usefully worked into organisational statements such as:

The requirement is for excellence with a distinct character related to a given organisation.

The standards and values relating to contractual, academic, financial and ethical considerations must be applied impartially everywhere and be of such a probity that they can be defended anywhere.​

In general we start with accepted ethical principles as I have outlined above and then work out a set of ethical guidelines that are specific to an industry; so one can easily find, in the literature, books on computer usage ethics, ethics in law, ethics in medicine and so on.
 
You might be interested in this, its just a group of definitions of very common terms.

Actions - Actions are implicit in many of the things we write about, action mean we DO someting. However, they are always expressed to a certain degree of resolution. This implies that an action in a strategic plan a particular level of resolution translates into several actions at lower levels of resolution.

Action Plans - These are typically detailed plans for implementing a strategy.

Code of Practice - These are guidance notes that set out what is recognised as best practice for a whole industry, usually by the industry itself.

Best Practice - Many processes and procedures will be present in a system and so we must define them unambiguously. It follows that to develop best practice you have to define what practices are available. Now in all likelihood there will be several ways of doing almost anything and so if you want to progress it is necessary to identify the best of these practices and use that as the standard until something better comes along. Do not close your mind and just carry on with what has been done before berceuse it is always better examine if a new way or an improved way is possible. This of course is not simple and there is no algorithm for doing it but nevertheless you should try, you should listen and so on. There are ways of generating new ideas such as Brainstorming but there are many other ways much more productive that that. For example, some common ones are: Kelly’s constructs, Rich Pictures and Relevant Systems.

In simple terms: identify practices; decide which ones are good practices and eventually which one might be classified as best practice. Best practice is likely to be a matter of expert professional judgment but can be identified by the following elements which are effectively best practice indicators.

Well-defined outcome – that is using the practice you always get the same outcome,

Recognition – there is no easy way to know a best practice but of common sense is a guide,

Fit – does the practice fit in well with other existing procedures and processes?

Cost effective – is the practice cost effective and be always on the lookout for improvement.

Specific Criteria - a conscious choice of general criteria should be made (it is not a matter of choosing any practice)

Criticality - being aware of how important it is that the process is done correctly

Efficient and based on the principles:
Can be leaned, described in a document and practiced.
Can be improved or perfected by use.​
 
You may find this useful and one often hears people speaking of 'metrics' but few in my experience have any clear understanding as to what it means. I hope therefore you will find this useful.

Metrics – meaning counts or amounts that are a kind of synthetic measurement or indicator. This idea is often misunderstood and if you are going to talk about it then make sure you understand that in general they are not measurements in any strict sense and are no more than ordinal counts or amounts therefore:

Metrics are not to be understood in the mathematical sense, but rather in terms of ordinal counts or amounts
Metrics are of two forms called simple (number of staff, etc.) and synthetic (average number of staff per department, etc.)
Metrics are of two main classes: control to assist in development and predictive to indicate future performance​

Finally, because metrics are just counts or amounts we have to find a meaning for them. In this sense the idea that a metric 'measures' something is not a good way to think and its better to say a metric “indicates” something but implies that the values were obtained in any of three ways.

By edict - This occurs when targets are set to indicate some constraints or requirements which must be met. For example an experienced Java programmer might suggest the maximum number of lines a procedure can have as a standard.

By estimation - When judgment is used to estimate a metric because the metric itself cannot be obtained directly at that time. Usually this form is based on estimation from previous knowledge of particular environments.

By collection - This occurs when the value of the can be obtained directly from the situation in some usually straightforward manner.​

A model that can be used when trying to derive metrics (indicators) is to decompose the elements:

Drivers - Organisational or other features that contribute significantly to the maintenance of quality.
Factor - The system element or feature that is being measured
Criteria - Elements that make up the factor
Metric - Counts of items identified as having some relationship to the factor being evaluated.​

For example suppose we were measuring Motivation then we might define this as:

Driver – management style, working conditions, pay, training etc.
Factor - Motivation being the desire to achieve a stated end
Criteria - Reward, training effectiveness and managerial section
Metrics - number of training places, absenteeism, etc.​
 
Re: Research Methods: Research Plans/Design

You may be tempted to dismiss this post but I urge you to read it as there is current huge interest in these idea and they are not as simple as they look.

Checklists
Checklist is simple but very powerful device to help ensure that mistakes are not made. They are deceptively simple in appearance and seem to be obvious but it is only when you begin to build them and use them and feel their power will you appreciate their huge value. A checklist is a simple device but it needs to be used honestly and collectively; no one is exempt from using it because no one is infallible. The trouble with professionals is they can kid themselves that everything is in place and that things are safe because of ‘professional judgment’ or some other description that allows them to stand alone as the judge and usually do nothing. An answer is a checklist, a short and ever evolving set of things we always do and never skip and we do it as a team. Checklists are used a ‘pause points’, meaning you deliberately slow down or stop to work through them.

Checklists do not remove the need for expert knowledge skills and professionalism but they are a necessary aid to them particularly at three pause points: at the start of something, when something goes wrong and at the end of something. One might graphically illustrate this with a medical example. A surgeon should pause and check before he makes the first cut because there is then no way to go back, something goes wrong in the middle of an operation and a check list is needed at that point and finally once the operation is finished another checklist is needed to make sure nothing has been forgotten. There are two kinds of check list:

Do-confirm – that is we ask that someone confirms that something has been done. In most educational situations we might use Do-confirm, for example, an examination is prepared and the examiner confirms he has done everything on the checklist.

Read-do – that is one reads the check list and does what is says. Here suppose an event occurs, for example, attendance is low for a particular class and that means we locate the relevant checklist and take action.​
These two things mean that everyone knows what to do in a given situation and everyone does the same thing. There may be hundreds of checklists produced in your checklist factory but that does not matter, all that matters is that you can find the right checklist when you need it. The whole point is that you use the checklist when it is needed and you do it in concert with others. It is easy to see that this can and should become routine, automatic for everyone and it will save us from many mistakes and hence considerable amounts of money.

Finally checklist must be short (not more than 10 items), contain precise and concise questions with not more that about 20 words each and ordered in some appropriate fashion and finally they should be under continual review.
 
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Most of not all of you have heard of this one but you might find here a new take on it because I emphasise its interconnectedness.

SWOT Analysis
This technique is attributed to Albert Humphrey in 1960/70s. It is often thought of as a problem solving method but that is unwise; it is best to think of it as a way of exploring a problem that you have already defined or uncover new opportunities or it can sometimes be used to manage a known threat. It has four more or less self evident elements in the model.

Strengths - these are usually thought of as attributes of the organization or even an individual that is helpful to achieving various goals (such as solving a problem)

Weaknesses – these are most often thought of as attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving various goals. It can also be useful to think of each of these weaknesses as a problem in itself.

Opportunities – here we usually consider external conditions that are or might be helpful to achieving the goals. This element really implies looking away from ones immediate circumstances and taking a wider opportunistic outlook and this element it crucial in getting anything out of SWOT. You can also think of every weakness as an opportunity and every opportunity as a potential weakness (if you ignore it).

Threats – here we consider external conditions that are harmful to achieving the goals. As for opportunities this element implies looking away from ones immediate circumstances and taking a wider essentially opportunistic outlook (because a threat can also be an opportunity) and this element it crucial in getting anything out of SWOT.​
 
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Re: Research Methods: Proof

Risk
In simple terms this means that you have identified something as a possible hazard, danger or threat that if it ever becomes a reality it may have negative impact. Risks may be identified by looking at present or future needs or possibilities so there is always a degree of uncertainly and that is why risk analysis is so important. One can consider relative and absolute risk.

Relative Risk – here one is expressing a risk relative between usually two groups so for example if one smokes cigarettes you have an increased risk of getting lung cancer. The actual ris can be expressed in several ways, 1 in 10, 10% or 0.1 risks.

Absolute Risk – here one is trying to express the risk without including any others factors. So for example, one can get lung cancer whether you smoke or not and in say a given age group we can say what that risk is.
​
So for example, if you natural or absolute risk is of getting lung cancer is 1% and you smoke giving you and increased risk of 20% then your overall risk is now 1x(1 + 0.20) = 1.20 or 1.2% or in other terms smokers are 20 times more likely to get cancer.

The actual formulas for this are just a little bit more complicated that this simple example would illustrate but if you are interested please look them up in a reputable book.
 
Scope and Scale
Scope and scale are meant to be considered carefully otherwise a project may become out of control and beyond ones capabilities in the time available or be set so that the problem becomes trivial. So please take note of what these terms mean.

Scope (selection) – this means something like selection or choice. So for example, if I were looking at training in desk-top packages I might select just Excel or I might select Excel and Access and so on to focus on. The point is I set my scope by being selective in what I study.

Scale (extent) – this means something like number or extent. So for example if I set my scope as looking at Excel I now need to set the number of users I will include in my study.​
 
Aim and Objectives
These two ideas are common to all sorts of things but are often misunderstood and written badly because the various required elements are missing.

Aim - this expresses the overall activity for generating a final project outcome. It is usually thought to have four elements: whole project outcome, an activity, a target and a data spotlight (OATS). So we might write “To examine (activity) Real Estate processes (spotlight) in order to generate a position paper (project outcome) on the relationship between government certification requirements and its impact on IT training standards in this industry as a means of promoting best practice (target).

Objective - This is usually taken to mean a statement about an activity that focuses on some defined data and leads to a given milestone in a project. It is best thought of as having three elements: the activity, the data to be used and the generated milestone (ASM). For example I might write “categorise” (activity) student responses to feedback (spotlighted data) and present all that in a catalogue (milestone). It might be helpful to you if you think of the milestone as a kind of “proof” that you have done something. In a student project or dissertation there might be 4 or 5 objectives expressed progressively so one each builds on the previous one.

Aim - To investigate and illustrate (activity) Phishing incidents (spotlight) within an organization, in order to produce a protocol (outcome) that can be used to prevent or mitigate (target) its adverse affects on computer users and the organization itself.

Objectives
1. Construct a critical review of technology, theories and issues relating to modern electronic communication forms.
2. To identify and list reported Phishing events that have taken place in the last year from representative computer users in the organization.
3. To design a questionnaire/interview questions to elicit relevant information from users based on an assessment of typical phishing scams.
4. To classify the data obtained into a preliminary illustrative catalogue outlining why and how the classification was arrived at.
5. To standardize the illustrative catalogue based on the questionnaire/interview data into publishable form suitable for dissemination within the company.
6. To construct the usage protocol based on the questionnaire/interview data to complement the published catalogue of standardised illustrations.​
 
It is likely at this time of the year you may well be thinking of project or dissertations. So I thought you might find it helpful if I outlined some suggested and typical headings and subheadings for each chapter. Most projects have around 6 chapters plus appendices as necessary.

NOTE. If there are any terms you don't understand just ask

Chapter 1 - Introduction and problem outline
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
Chapter 3 - Research Design
Chapter 4 - Presentation of data and generation of results
Chapter 5 - Evaluation of outcome and practice
Chapter 6 - Conclusions and Generalizations

Appendices - Of these your project specification, project plan and actual data collection are regarded as essential: specification, project plan, Glossary, References list and Bibliography, primary data collection/set. Other items that might be included in an appendix are: Inclusions (copies any relevant documents), Sample Questionnaires, Summary interview transcripts, Details Evaluation scripts, Requirement catalogues, etc

Chapter 1 – largely about scene setting and outlining the basic research elements thus, all the following must be covered although you do not have to use these sub-headings

1.1 Introduction with problem setting and client
1.2 Presenting problem, its causes and reason for its resolution
1.3 Overview of Research Plan covering: approach, style, brief study plan, primary data, outcome, actor and target and it is recommended you present them in this order as a series of connected sentences or as bulleted points. It is important that you refer to you project plan when you write this section.
Approach - inductive or deductive and you may present a hypothesis if it’s applicable
Style – qualitative or quantitative (recall that these refer to the type of outcome NOT the type of data)
Study plan – give the briefest of outlines as to what you will do
Primary Data – brief outline but make sure it’s understandable
Outcome – the final project product that will be used by the actors (report, review, model, plan, etc)
Actors – those who CAN and will use the outcome to eventually deploy or affect a solution​

1.4 Scope (what aspect is covered) and Scale (how many firms, people etc are involved). You may also include here any assumptions made or limitations on your study
1.5 Ethical Overview
1.6 Research Question: interrogative, outcome, actor, problem, spotlight, activity and target
1.7 Aim: activity, outcome, spotlight and target
1.8 Objectives: activity, spotlight, milestone (visible features) plus bounded and progressive (non-visible features)
1.9 Summary and link to next chapter

For item 1.4 you are trying to set limits on what you will do and hence limits on the applicability of the outcome so this needs careful thought. For example, I might set the scope as looking at eMarketing effectiveness and my scale is to do it with three different companies. If you wish you can add in this section a brief note on the methods you might use to show they are appropriate within your chosen scope and scale.

For 1.6 the order in which the features are written down will vary depending on the interrogative used so this aspect needs very careful thought. Items 1.7 and 1.8 may be combined into one section for convenience and the order of the required features when written down may vary as is best to ensure lucid wording.
 
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Project/Dissertation Chapter 2 - The Literature Review
Deals with preparing for research by becoming a topic area expert thus all the following must be covered although you do not have to use these particular sub-headings. Normally there are two major areas to be covered, for example: the direct topic might be Real Estate and the special aspect Strategic Business IT, IT infrastructures or products for that industry.

In all learning there is an element of serendipity, but whilst it is important to recognise that leaning can occur at any time or place; good learners will take steps to ensure their work is systematic, structured and organized rather than haphazard. In addition, the work has to be systemic so that every part contributes to and helps every other part. So in the literatures review your knowledge is on display and readers can judge if it has scholarly qualities rather that haphazard once; betraying a poor and careless mind or a lack of real effort.

Introduction to topic area
Originality Theme (Based on personal viewpoints/idea/Experiences etc)
Topic aspect 1
Topic aspect 2
Topic aspect ‘n’ etc (usually about 5 to 10 topic aspects are used)
Past Research in this area
Statistical Review (if necessary)
Summary and review conclusions​

Keep in mind that this work must be thorough otherwise you will simply not have the necessary knowledge to decide in the actual research design what data to use or how to interpret that data when you get it. It should also be noted that this is about using primary sources such as Journals, government papers, manufacturer’s guidance notes and so on although books may also be included. Please do not cite unreliable internet sources such a Wikipedia (though it might be a good starting point for your literature search) as that will be regarded by the University as a gross error and cannot be called serious academic preparation.

Finally, a review must be original to you even though you have perhaps used many other authors, it is essential that in your review explores what you have found and analysed not simply report what other have said. Roughly speaking, one cites a sources in some way and then you add comments of your own by way of elaboration, exploration or discussion.
 

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