INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

PROJECT PROPOSAL
BY
CHARLES MWABU
Introduction
Although there is no standard way of structuring and formatting research proposals, I
suggest your proposal to conform to the structure and format that I have discussed below.

1. Front Matter
The front matter constitutes all the materials appearing in the proposal prior to the first
chapter. These materials include: title page, an abstract/executive summary, table of
contents, list of tables and list of figures. They should appear in the proposal in that order,
and each should start on a new page.

Title page
This is the first page in the proposal, and it should have the title of the project, student’s
full name as it appear in the University records and his/her registration number,
university affiliation, the degree, name of the supervisor and the date of submission. The
content of the title page should be centered, and there should be approximately two
inches from the top margin. Although this page is not supposed to be numbered,
technically, it should be counted as page “i”

Just to illustrate how the title page of the proposal is expected to look like, I now present
an excerpt from one of my research proposals. This excerpt has been slightly revised.

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 A SIMULATION MODEL OF HIV/AIDS COMMODITIES SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN KENYA

by
Charles Mwabu
(BIT-001-0001/2008)

A project proposal submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Information Technology Department

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

2009

Supervisor name:…………………………………… Signature………………………………...

Date of Submission:……………………………………..

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 Abstract
This is an informative summary of the research problem and its settings, methodology
and expected outcomes. And it should be made up of not more than 200 words.

Table of contents
The table of contents should show the major parts of the research proposal, how they are
organized, and where each part can be found.

To illustrate how the table of contents is expected to look like, I now present an excerpt
from one of my research proposals. Again the excerpt has been revised.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Title Page i
Executive Summary ii
Chapter 1: The Problem and its Settings…………………………………….. 1
1.1 The Statement of the Problem…………………...................... 2
1.2 Proposed solution………………………………………………….. 2
1.3 The Overall Goal……………………………………………. 3
1.4 The Objective and Research Questions………......................... 3
1.5 The Anticipated Outcomes………………………………............ 3
1.6 The Importance of the Study……………………………........... 4
Chapter 2: The Review of the Related Literature………………................. 6
2.1 Health Information Technology (HIT)…………………..……… 6
2.2 Diffusion, Utilization and Adoption of HIT……………………. 6
2.3 Simulation Modeling of HIT……………………………….......... 7
2.4 Contribution from the Research………………………………… 7
Chapter 3: Project Methodology……………………………………………… 8
Chapter 4: Project Time Plan…………………………………………………. 10
Chapter 5: Personnel and Facilities………………………………………….. 11
5.1 Personnel……………………………………………………………. 11
5.2 Facilities…………………………………………………………….. 11

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Chapter 6: Budget, Budget Justification and Payment Schedule………….. 12
6.1 Budget ……………………………………………………………….. 12
6.2 Budget Justification……………………………………………….... 13
6.3 Payment Schedule……………………………………………………. 15
References 16
A Questionnaires 17
B Interview Questions 18

List of figures and tables

The list of figures and tables should show the headings of figures and tables in the
proposal, and where each can be found. As an illustration, I now present an excerpt from
one of my research proposals.
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1: Activities and the Durations………………………………………. 10
Table 2: Project Budget…………………………………………………….... 12
Table 3: Payment Schedule……………………………………………......... 15

2. Body of the Proposal

The body of the proposal should start at the first chapter and ends at the last chapter, and
it should be made up of the following elements: statement of the problem, proposed
solution, overall goal, objective(s), research questions, anticipated outcomes, monitoring
and evaluation, importance of the study, review of the related literature, project
methodology, project time plan, resources, budget and budget justification. These
elements can be structured as shown below. The ellipses (…) indicate where text has
been omitted.

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 CHAPTER ONE
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTINGS
1.1 The Statement of the Problem
…
1.2 Proposed Solution
…
1.3 The Overall Goal
…
1.4 Objective(s) and Research Questions
1.4.1 Objective(s)
…
1.4.2 Research Questions
…
1.5 Monitoring and Evaluation
…
1.6 The Importance of the Study

CHAPTER TWO
THE REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
…
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
…
CHAPTER FOUR
RESOURCES
…
CHAPTER FIVE
PROJECT TIME PLAN
…

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 CHAPTER SIX
BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION
6.1 Budget
…
6.2 Budget Justification
3. End Matter
The end matter starts at the end of the last chapter and it should be made up of references
and appendixes.

References
This is where all the books, journals, conference papers and any other materials used
when developing the proposal should listed. Ensure every reference has been referred to
in the text, and very reference referred to in the text appear in the references. Harvard
system should be used as a reference standard.

i) Standard for referencing journals

author(s) (surname first followed by author’s first and middle names initials), date, title
(in quotes), journal (in italics), volume (in bold), issue, page numbers

ii) Standard for referencing books

author(s) (surname first followed by author’s first and middle names initials), date, title
(in italics), publishing company, city of publication

iii) Standard for referencing materials retrieved from the Internet

author(s) (surname first followed by author’s first and middle names initials), date, title
(in italics), publisher, place of publication, Internet address (URL), date on which
information was obtained

iv) Standard for referencing papers presented at a conference:

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author(s) (surname first followed by author’s first and middle names initials), date, title
(in italics), name of the conference, its location

To illustrate how the references should be cited in the text, I now present excerpts from
one of my research proposals. The ellipses (…) indicate where text has been omitted.

i)
According to [Aronovich and Kinzett 2001] KEMSA act as a state central warehouse …

ii)
… medical institutions where there are long periods of stock-out of HIV/AIDS
commodities (e.g. [Aronovich and Kinzett, 2001]).

iii)
… implemented is by means of a computer simulation model (see, for
example[ Kieran and Hussein, 2008]).

iv)
… form and structure that customers expect and deserve (see e.g. [Mengesha, 2007]).

v)
[Tapan et al., 2006] report that …
vi)
However, [Jonathaan 2004] point out that …

vii)
… forecast demand for ARV drugs (see e.g. [Rwashan and Williams, 2008]; [Galarraga,
et al., 2007]; [Mellon and Currie, 2007] and Mielczarek, 2006]).

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 Appendixes
Materials such as questionnaires and interview questions should be included in the
appendix. Each appendix should have a name and an appendix number for identification
purposes.

4. Writing Style
It is hard to distinguish between a good and a bad writing style. However, a good writing
style is all about clear and effective presentation of information. In order to ensure that
your research proposal is clear and effectively presented, I suggest you follow the
guidelines that I have discussed.

a) Font and formatting

Times New Roman should be used throughout. There should be one line spacing between
paragraphs, and 1.5 line spacing within a paragraph. Each paragraph should be written in
font size 12. Use indentation to indicate the start of a new paragraph. And all pages
should be numbered, but title page, executive summary, table of contents, list of figures
and list of tables should be in Roman.

b) Equations
All equations should have labels at the right margin with two numbers separated with a
period. The number on the right of period denotes the chapter within which the equation
appears, and the one on the right side of the period identifies the equation within that
chapter. For example, the label 3.1 in the equation below denotes that the equation is in
chapter 3 and it is the first equation in that chapter.

DRE=E/(E+D) (3.1)
c) Graphs, figures and tables
Graphs, figures and tables should have headings and numbers at the bottom centre. A
graph, a figure or a table can appear either at the top, the bottom, or on a separate page by
itself. All graphs, figures and tables must be introduced and discussed either before or
after the page on which they appears.

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 d) Tenses
Research proposals contain what the researcher is planning to do. And therefore with an
exception of the review of the related literature, the rest of the sections are written in
future tense.

5. Oral Presentation
In addition to writing a research proposal, students are required to orally present their
proposals to a panel of academic staff members. It is important for one to prepare for the
presentation, and be confident and enthusiasm. In order for your presentation to be
judged highly, you should ensure that:
a) Slides are well structured and contain comprehensive summary of the entire
proposal document,

b) Information contained in each slide has not been lifted from the proposal,

c) Slides are not crammed with too much information and too small to read,

d) There is no contradiction between what is contained in proposal and what is orally

presented,

e) Time is well managed, and

f) Questions are answered to acceptable standards.

AND WITH THAT, I WISH THE BEST IN YOUR PROJECT