SWE EPA: AM1 Work-Based Project Report Structure | by Esgrid Sikahall

What a day to learn about the Work-Based Project report! In the first part of this article, you saw a full overview of the AM1. To refresh your memory, the path went from preparing your title and 500-word summary for Gateway, all the way to Gateway itself and beyond. 

Beyond Gateway, you saw that you had to execute your project in 9 weeks - usually taking 7 weeks to complete and 2 weeks to write your report. Finally, after submitting your report, you had at least 10 working days to prepare for your 1-hour Q&A, which happens on the same day as the 1-hour Professional Discussion underpinned by the Portfolio. Your 1-hour Q&A concludes the AM1 and the Professional Discussion concludes the AM2 and together they conclude your EPA!

In the second part of the article, we will focus on the report you’ll write based on your Work-Based Project. We’ll give you a structure, provided by Accelerate People, and top tips for you to know what to aim at to meet all the KSBs and have a useful map for your 1-hour Q&A.

Scope of Work-Based Project

As mentioned in part one of this article, the Work-Based Project could be based on things like an idea or opportunity you see that your business might implement, solving a particular problem, or addressing a recurring issue. Whatever your Work-Based Project turns out to be, however, the structure of your report should be such that it displays clearly the KSBs assessed in AM1 and how they provided business value.

Accelerate People note that your project should involve:

• Following software designs and functional and technical specifications, building, managing, and deploying code
• Applying an appropriate software development approach (for example object-oriented, event-driven, or procedural)
• Creating logical and maintainable code, applying algorithms, logic, and data structures, and problem-solving and debugging code
• Identifying and creating test scenarios, testing code, and analysing the results.

The apprenticeship assessment plan gives a good indication of whether a particular project would pass the minimum criteria, summarised in the following table (including the associated KSBs):

The distinction criteria cannot be achieved without meeting the above criteria. Meet the MVP and then re-factor to meet the distinction criteria as well. This table summarises the distinction criteria:

You can use these in conjunction with the KSBs to make sure your Work-Based Project and your report meet all the requirements.

Work-Based Project Report Structure

The structure of the Work-Based Project report is crafted for you to be able to display the information shown above accurately and effectively. The main sections are:

1. Title
2. Introduction
3. Work-Based Project Scope
4. Project Plan
5. Legislation, Regulation, Industry and Organisational Policies, Procedures and Requirements
6. Analysis and Problem Solving in Response to Challenges Within the Project
7. Research and Findings
8. Project Outcomes
9. Recommendations and Conclusions
10. Appendix 1: Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours Map
11. Appendix 2: Software Development Lifecycle Map
12. Declaration

Let’s go through them one by one.

1. Title

This one seems self-explanatory… except that there are better and worse titles. A good title should be clear and accurate without turning into a fully descriptive sentence. Instead of “Designing a System for A” you could be more specific and say “Designing a B System for A in C” where B is the kind of system you designed, A is the main stakeholder, and C is the main technology or technologies used. If it’s beginning to sound long-winded, try and make it more succinct without losing the core of what the project is about.

2. Introduction

The introduction includes:

• Your specific role within your company and team.
• Your key responsibilities within your company and team.
• A brief overview of your project, be it a common issue, a problem, or a new idea.
  • This should include any assumptions that you made regarding the work you’ve done and how you’ve approached it.
• The scope of the task - what does the task involve and why are you doing it?
• Include the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) - what indicates that you have succeeded in your task? What are you expected to achieve?

3. Work-Based Project Scope

The scope of the task involves:

• A description of what the task involves:
  • Is it a new idea or opportunity? Is it a specific problem? Is it a recurring issue?
• Why are you undertaking the task?
  • Make sure you mention here the stakeholders - include customers, colleagues, and any party who is affected by or is invested in your task being solved successfully.
• What are the key performance indicators?
• What are you expected to achieve?
  • Mention the things that sit within your role and are critical to the Work-Based Project. You might be involved in a larger project and your Work-Based Project could be a sub-task within the larger project. If so, mention succinctly and clearly what this larger project is and how your task fits in it.
• What are you not expected to achieve?
  • Mention things that are outside your role but that still affect your Work-Based Project.

4. Project Plan

Here you outline your approach to the task. You should include:

• Tools, Technology, and software development approach you’ve selected to complete the task and their appropriateness. Explain why you chose the tool, technology, or approach if you have chosen from a range of options.
• Research used to assist you on the task. Did the research alter your approach? How did it help you?
• Any CPD or training you’ve used to complete the task

5. Legislation, Regulation, Industry and Organisational Policies, Procedures and Requirements

In this section you should include:

• How you considered legislation, regulation, industry and organisational policies, procedures and requirements.
• How does the UK or European or International legislation impact your Work-Based Project? (GDPR is a good example)
• Sector regulation impacting your Work-Based Project.
• Your own company policies and procedures that impact your project and why these are important.

6. Analysis and Problem-Solving in Response to Challenges Within the Project

In this section, you’re answering the question of what analysis you carried out. For this you may want to think about:

• How clear are the requirements? Are the technical requirements achievable? Is the UI clearly documented?
• How was the code managed? What are the risks and challenges?
• How was the existing codebase analysed? How does the analysis support the project’s objectives?
• What quality risks are there? Is the codebase poorly structured? Does it lack documentation? (insufficient comments, for example) How can you mitigate the risks (alternative approaches)?
• Did you need any escalations to complete your analysis? Who did you have to contact or what did you have to do?

7. Research and Findings

In this section, you should include anything you discovered and anything you’d change in your approach. Think about the following:

• What worked well and what didn’t work as expected?
• What were the key outcomes?
• What did you learn and what would you do differently to improve the outcome? Include using different approaches, techniques, tools, or technologies.
• Would any other factors impact on an attempt to improve the outcome of the task?

8. Project Outcomes

Here you should write about the results of your project, referencing artifacts within the appendices to convey the software solution and design of the software development outputs. Include:

• Any problems encountered or changes made.
• Any stakeholders, colleagues, and customers engaged with during the task.
• Where, if any, legislation, policies, and processes were followed - you can refer to section 5 to remind the reader.
• Include any supporting evidence such as screenshots of feedback from stakeholders, the feedback you got from stakeholders when presenting your results, or any data that backs up the results of your project.

9. Recommendations and Conclusions

In this final section make sure you close the circle opened at the beginning of the Work-Based Project by assessing whether you met your goals and the pros and cons of the approaches you took.

• Did you meet the requirements outlined at the beginning? Discuss how and why.
• Evaluate the different software development approaches or techniques used and their suitability or effectiveness to the task.
• Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different coding and programming techniques to create logical and maintainable code

10. Appendix 1: Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours Map

Fill out the pages where each of the KSBs are found in your Work-Based Project report:

11. Appendix 2: Software Development Lifecycle Map

Fill out the pages of the sections where you’ve met each of the SDLC stages:

12. Declaration

Finally, make sure you add the declarations where both yourself and your manager ratify that the work was carried out by yourself at your workplace.
 

Apprentice:

Employer:

Concluding Remarks

You’ve made it this far! Congratulations. Completing your AM1 means that you have officially completed all your apprenticeship requirements! Since you’ve already submitted your Portfolio, and on the same day of the Q&A you’ll complete the Professional Discussion (AM2), you have completed your EPA and your entire apprenticeship! Very well done for a tremendous achievement.

You can go back to the EPA introductory article to refresh your memory of your entire journey, including what happens in case you need to resit or retake AM1, AM2, or both. 

At the very end of your journey, we wish you all the best in your Work-Based Project report and be sure that we will support you throughout your journey.

Make sure to check out the whole SWE EPA series:

• SWE EPA: An Introduction
• SWE EPA: AM2 Professional Discussion & Portfolio Overview
• SWE EPA: AM2 Portfolio Structure
• SWE EPA: AM1 Work-Based Project and Q&A Overview
• SWE EPA: AM1 Work-Based Project Report Structure

Esgrid Sikahall is a Software Engineering coach at Multiverse.