Guidelines for
Capstone Project (DEMGN696) of MBA Programme and
Project Work (DECAP788) of MCA and M.Sc. – IT (DECAP788)
Programme of LPU Distance Mode
1
Table of Contents
S.No. Particulars Page No.
1 CHAPTER 1: Introduction 3-4
1.1 Purpose 3
1.2 Applicability 3
1.3 Types of Projects 3
2 CHAPTER 2: General Guidelines 4-5
2.1 Scope of the Project 5
2.2 Expected Outcome from a Project 5
2.3 Project Duration 5
2.4 Stages of the Project Work 5
2.5 End Term Evaluation 5
3 CHAPTER 3: Guidelines for Final Report Submission 6-8
3.1 Sequence of Introductory Pages of the Report 6
3.2 Formatting of the Report 6
3.3 Chapter Outline for Final Report Preparation 6
3.4 Guidelines for Writing References 7
3.5 Table of Contents 8
4 CHAPTER 4: Evaluation Parameters for Capstone Project 9-10
Courses
4.1 Course weightages 9
4.2 Evaluation parameters for End Term Practical Viva 9
4.3 Submission of Published Research Paper 10
5 CHAPTER 5: Award of Grades for Capstone Project 11
Courses
5.1 Award of passing grades 11
5.2Award of ‘E’ grade 11
Annexures 12-13
Annexure - I: Cover Page 12
Annexure - II: Declaration by the Student 13
2
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
1.1Purpose
In order to impart education to the students outside the classroom rather than just reading the theory in
a conventional manner, all the 4th semester students of MBA, MCA and M.Sc. – IT programmes of
LPU Distance Education Mode need to work on a project as a part of their programme scheme where
they can work practically and implement the knowledge and skills gained during their studies to
generate new knowledge. The projects must be structured to ensure that the students gain learning that
is relevant to their educational development. To ensure that the projects meet the industry standards,
the final evaluation of these projects shall be done by experienced academicians / industry experts
wherever required.
1.2Applicability
These guidelines are applicable to Capstone Project (DEMGN696) of MBA programme and Project
Work (DECAP788) of MCA and M.Sc. – IT (DECAP788) programme of LPU Distance Education
mode. The project work undertaken should be authentic and should contribute towards the development and
growth of the student.
1.3Types of Projects
Depending upon the nature, the projects can be categorized into the following four categories
a) Live Projects: Live projects mean working on real-life problems within defined timelines. Such
type of projects establishes an awareness of social responsibility and can empower students to work
exceptionally that make a difference in the communities they work with. These projects can also
lead to revenue generation if done with the companies to solve their real-life problems or students
can get participation certificates from the company with which they have worked. Creating market
strategies to gain valuable customers, developing market relation etc. are some of the examples of
Live Projects.
b) Consultancy Projects: In these types of projects, students provide their knowledge and intellectual
inputs to various companies or organizations. It is a collaboration between a company and
consultants to solve the problems faced by a company. Corporate restructuring, cost reduction,
merger and acquisition, development of a product or setting up an industry, process automation and
patent litigations are some of the examples of consultancy projects.
c) Entrepreneur Projects: In these types of projects, the students can work on some business ideas
or can develop a product, service or event that are valued in the community as they meet specific
needs or meet identified needs. Producing a show, offering services to a publishing house, offering
analysis services and offering services for quality control are some of the examples of entrepreneur projects.
d) General Projects: These types of projects add to knowledge enrichment. It can be individual or
collaborative and involves design that is carefully planned by a project team to achieve a particular
aim with a certain cost. Ways to reduce the level of stress among students, home automation
system, mobile jammer are some of the examples of general projects.
3
CHAPTER-2
General Guidelines
2.1Scope of the Project
Each project is expected to address at least one of the following SDGs:
a) Societal issues
b) Industrial issues
c) Government issues (Policy making etc.)
d) Business issues
e) Environmental issues
f) Conceptual
g) Enrich the discipline related knowledge
h) News worthy
Students are expected to work on a real-life project preferably in Industry / Research & Development /
Laboratories / Educational Institution / Software Company. MBA students can choose project topic
from their specializations.
MCA and M.Sc. – IT students are required to select one project from the broad category listed below:
• Database projects
• Network projects
• Web based projects
• Android based projects
• Middleware projects
• System Programming based projects
• Artificial Intelligence / expert system-based projects
• Embedded software
• Simulators
• Research Based projects
2.2Expected Outcome from a Project
Each type of project is expected to give at least one of the following outcomes:
a) Quality Publication
b) IPR generation (Patents / Copy Rights / Design / Prototype)
c) New innovation
d) Policy making
e) Societal contribution
2.3 Project Duration
The details regarding various activities to be completed by a student are mentioned in the section 2.4.
The students are required to finalize the topic, objectives, methodology and start working on the
project. Therefore, the work plan must be designed keeping in view the timelines for the completion of
project work.
2.4 Stages of the Project Work
4
a) Submission of Project Topic: Careful selection of project topic is utmost important step. The
students should survey the literature in the proposed area of project to find the area of interest and
finalize the topic.
The student needs to finalize the following:
a) Area of specialization
b) Topic of the project
c) Nature of the project (Live, General, Entrepreneur project or consultancy project)
d) Novelty of the Topic
e) Timelines / Methodology
Once the above-mentioned parameters are finalized, the student needs to communicate the topic
along with the relevant information to Centre for Distance & Online Education through e-Connect.
b) Submission of Project Report: Once the students have completed their project work, they need to
submit the final project report in time to be eligible for End Term evaluation.
The formatting and suggestive outline of the report is mentioned in detail in chapter-3. The students
need to submit complete project report as per specified guidelines.
The following key points must be kept in mind related to final project report submission.
1. While working on the final report submission, the students are advised to use online as well as
offline resources. The students can use the online resources available in e-Library Tab on their e-
Connect.
2. An e-copy of the report shall be uploaded by the student(s) on the e-Connect interface in a secured
PDF format on e-Connect.
Important Note:
Each student must ensure that he / she has signed annexure - II. The report uploaded on e-Connect
must contain the scanned copy of the annexures, otherwise the report shall not be considered for
evaluation.
2.5 End Term Evaluation
After completion of the project, the eligible students (who have submitted the project report online on
e-Connect) are required to appear in the end term viva wherein the student shall be evaluated by
examiner as per schedule communicated by Division of Examination. The evaluation parameters for
End Term Viva evaluation are discussed in section 4.2. The marks awarded by examiners will be
considered as final ETP viva marks of a student.
Important points:
1. The project work should be the original work done by the student(s). In case students present the
work of someone else as their own or copies large portion from academic or other sources without
properly referencing them, even if unintentionally, it will be considered as an academic
misconduct. There will be zero tolerance for academic misconduct or plagiarism. All the matters
related to plagiarism will be dealt as per the University policy on academic misconduct.
2. All publications and Intellectual Property Rights arising out of project work shall be made as per
the University policy guidelines.
5
CHAPTER-3
Guidelines for Final Report Submission
Following points should be kept in mind while preparation of the final report of the project:
Final Project report should be submitted online on the appropriate e-Connect interface.
The title page should have information as mentioned in (Annexure - I)
The report should be categorized in Chapters as per section 3.3 and the final chapter must be
conclusion and future perspectives.
3.1 Sequence of Introductory Pages of the Report
1) Cover page {as per Annexure - I}
2) Declaration by student {as per Annexure - II}
3) Acknowledgement (if any)
4) List of Tables (If any)
5) List of Figures/ Charts (If any)
6) List of Schemes (If any)
7) List of Symbols (If any)
8) List of abbreviations (If any)
3.2 Formatting of the Report
1) The report should be prepared on A4 letter size.
2) The font type should be Times New Roman. The font size should be 14 for headings and 12 for
normal text.
3) All the headings should be in bold and all the other matter should be normal.
4) The text should be justified throughout the report except for headings, figures, tables, schemes etc.
5) The line spacing should be fixed at 1.5 for the entire report.
6) The page numbers should be mentioned at bottom middle position.
7) The top, bottom, left and right margins should be 1” each.
8) The chapters should be numbered as Chapter-1, Chapter-2, etc. whereas figures, charts, tables etc.
should be numbered as 1.1, 2.1 etc. For example figure 1.1 corresponds to first figure in chapter-1.
9) The report should be minimum of 30 pages and maximum of 50 pages.
3.3 Chapter Outline for Final Report Preparation
The report should be divided into minimum of 5 chapters. The number of chapters can be increased to
maximum of 7 depending upon the requirement and nature of the work undertaken by the students.
The suggestive guidelines for each chapter are as follows:
Chapter-1: Chapter-1 should be titled as “Introduction”. The topic selected by the student should
be introduced in this section. It should include the aim, importance, applicability, scope, relevance
etc. of the proposed work.
Chapter-2: Chapter-2 should be entitled as “Review of Literature”. This should contain the
authoritative as well as latest references in the field of proposed work. The student has to cite various
previously done researches relating to their topic in a well-structured and organized way. This section
will mention the related study along with mentioning author, year, objectives, sample, tools used and
findings. The research gaps should be clearly defined in this chapter which has led to the need of the
6
proposed work.
Chapter-3: Chapter-3 should be entitled as “Implementation of project”. This should contain the
detailed outline of the project like objectives, hypothesis (if any), experimental work, methodology /
designing / tools / techniques / instrumentation, coding, circuit designs, field settings, testing and
implementation etc. used during the course of the project.
Chapter-4: Chapter 4 should be titled as “Results and Discussions”. This chapter should contain
details about the results obtained and discussions based upon the results. All the supporting
information like Graphs, tables and figures, screenshots, outputs should be part of this chapter.
Final Chapter: Last Chapter should be titled as “Conclusion and Future Scope”. The conclusion
part of the project work should be properly discussed based upon the results obtained rather than the
hypothesis or assumptions. This chapter should also contain the future perspectives and applicability
related to the project work.
Publication Details: This section should be entitled as “List of publications/conference papers”.
This section should include the list of publications which have been the direct outcome of the project
work undertaken by the student. The student must mention the list of such publications along with
their status such as published, reviewer’s comments received, communicated etc. In case of published
articles, the copy of same can be attached. In case the publication is in conference, details should be
provided about type of conference (National / International), conference name, dates, venue, paper
presentation and publication details such as volume, issue, page nos. In case the research publication is
published in a reputed journal details such as name of the journal, ISSN, volume, issue, page number
etc. should also be mentioned.
Annexures: Annexure - I and Annexure - II should be submitted along with the project report.
3.4 Guidelines for Writing References
The references should be written after publication details.
References must be typed as Superscripted in text.
Multiple references must be comma (,) separated.
While writing the reference for a paper in journal, following order should be followed
a) Initial and surname of the authors
b) Title of the paper in inverted commas
c) Name of the Journal in italics (Standard abbreviation can be used)
c) Volume number in bold
d) First page-last page
e) Year of publication
For example- J. Luo, C. W. Chen, K. J. Parker, and T. S. Huang, “Artifact reduction in low bit rate
DCT-based image compression” IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol. 5, pp. 1363–1368, Sept. 1999.
While writing the reference of a book chapter, following order should be followed
a) Initial and surname of the authors
b) Title of the book
c) Edition of the book in round brackets
d) Name of publisher
e) Year of book in bold
7
f) First page-last page
For example- M. Kitamura, R. Noyori in Ruthenium in Organic Synthesis (Ed.: S.-I. Murahashi),
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2004, pp. 3–52.
While writing the reference for website, following order should be followed
a) URL of the website
b) Dated: DD/MM/YYYY
For Example- https://www.hopkinsguides.com/hopkins/view/Johns_Hopkins_Diabetes_Guide
/547042/all/DPP_IV_Inhibitors; Dated: 16/07/2019
3.5 Table of Contents
S. No. Title Page
1 Declaration by Student
2 Acknowledgement
3 Abstract
4 List of Tables
5 List of Figures/ Charts
6 List of Schemes/Algorithms
7 List of Symbols
8 List of Abbreviations
9 Chapter-1 Introduction
10 Chapter-2 Review of Literature
11 Chapter-3 Implementation of project
12 Chapter-4 Results and Discussions
13 Final Chapter- Conclusion and Future Scope
14 Publication details
15 Annexures
16 References
8
CHAPTER-4
Evaluation Parameters for Capstone Project Courses
The project evaluation process is very crucial for the success of the project. Project evaluation is
concerned with performance tracking along with the life of a project and demands special attention. At
the heart of this process lies a system of criteria one has to take into account when performing the
evaluation. This chapter emphasizes on the course weightages and ETP parameters on which the
student performance shall be evaluated.
4.1Course weightages
Component Weightage
On the basis of Project Report 30%
On the basis of Viva-voce of the Project Report 70%
Total 100%
4.2 Evaluation Parameters for End Term Practical Viva
Maximum
Parameter
Marks
On the basis of the Project Report 30
Submission of the Project Report as per prescribed format 10
Innovation and applicability of Project Work 10
Quality of the Project Work 10
On the basis of Viva-voce of the Project Report 70
Communication of the Student 10
The student is well aware with the latest trends of development in the
10
area of project work
The student is confident and able to answer the queries / questions
20
raised with proper justifications
Methodology Evaluation and Implementation Assessment 20
The student is open to the observations and pertinent suggestions
10
formulated during viva
TOTAL MARKS 100
9
NOTE: The project work submitted by students should be the original in nature. Copying from any
online/offline sources is strictly prohibited. Plagiarism will be checked for each report and the
permitted level of plagiarism is less than 20%.
In case, it is found that the plagiarism exceeds the permitted limit, and the student has presented a
copied work without proper reference/citation, then the same will be considered as an act of academic
misconduct. All such cases shall then be initiated for action as per the university policy on academic
misconduct.
4.3 Submission of the Published Research Paper:
Student will include the published research paper/s which have been the direct outcome of the research
work and its proof/s in publication details section of project report. Publication should be in UGC Care
journals or Book Chapters having ISBN.
Important point:
1. Only those publication or book chapters shall be considered which are affiliated to Lovely
Professional University and the name of the student is mentioned in the list of authors in the
publication. The research publication must be related to the project work undertaken by the
students. Research paper published which is not in sync with project topic shall not be considered
for ETP evaluation.
2. Research paper communicated must be original work of student. At any point of time, if a student
is found to be presenting the project research work of someone else it shall be treated as case of
academic misconduct and can be treated accordingly. All matters related to academic misconduct
will be dealt as per the university policy on academic misconduct.
10
CHAPTER-5
Award of Grades for Capstone Project Courses
5.1 Award of passing grades
The student shall be awarded pass grade (O, A+, A, B, C, D) on the basis of satisfying the following
criteria:
a) Submission of final report in online mode on e-Connect.
b) End Term Practical Viva
5.2Award of ‘E’ Grade
If the student failed to satisfy the criteria given in section 5.1, he / she will be awarded E grade. In case
a student is awarded E grade, the student is required to fill the reappear for the course during the
reappear registration. The student is required to repeat the Project work and rewrite the report.
11
Annexure - I
Cover Page
(ADD TOPIC HERE ---- ADD TOPIC HERE)
(In Times New Roman font˂font size16˃Bold)
A Project Report
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Award of the degree of
(in Times New Roman, ˂font size14˃)
“Name of the Program”
Fontsize16
By
Student Name
(˂in Times New Roman font size 14˃ bold)
(Enter Registration Number Here)
(in Times New Roman, ˂font size 12˃ bold)
Centre for Distance and Online Education
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
PHAGWARA, PUNJAB
Year
(In Times New Roman ˂fontsize16> bold)
12
Annexure - II
Declaration by the Student
To whom-so-ever it may concern
I, Name of the student, Registration Number of the student, hereby declare that the work
done by me on “Topic of the project”, is a record of original work for the partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree, Programme name.
Name of the Student (Registration Number)
Signature of the student
Dated:
13
