Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T05:52:06.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Structuring the proposal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2009

Paul Coombs
Paul Coombs
Affiliation:
IT Project Estimation Limited
Get access

Summary

DOCUMENT STRUCTURE

Why have a plan?

Few fields of human activity are not the better for a plan. However, most people do not start on a proposal with any particular structure in mind; they hope one will emerge at some point during the creation process. Too often, it doesn't, and the result is a hotchpotch of ideas with no theme or conclusions. We can't just throw down everything we know, with every alternative that we have dreamed up, in the hope that some of it will strike a chord with the reader. Examine this next example. The writer has some revolutionary, exciting, even rather crazy ideas. But he is trying to appeal to his managers, the people who will change the direction of the whole company to embrace those ideas. What will they make of this?

The methodology and principal is based on natural laws of new physics where we will attempt to create a phase transition at a lower level in order to allow the objects self organise into like structures. The simplest analogy of this process by which we will recompile the data is based on theories of Cellular Automata developed originally by Von Neuman (founder of Game theory) and Ted Codd (the inventor of relational database). The theory was expanded by Langton at the Santa Fe institute with their research into “artificial life”. The “game of life” as it was termed looks similar to a game of “Go” where you have white and black pieces having negative and positive values that represent alive or dead states. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
IT Project Proposals
Writing to Win
 , pp. 28 - 42
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×