A-level Computing/AQA/The Computing Practical Project/Appraisal

Once you have completed everything else it is time to finish the project, and that means writing the appraisal. This section is relatively easy to get marks in so give yourself time to do it properly.

Did you meet your objectives?
Way back in your Analysis you wrote down a set of objectives, copy them into you appraisal. For each objective state if you met it and how it went. For example:

You are aiming to meet all of your objectives, but don't be afraid to mention those that you didn't meet and why you didn't meet them.

Feedback
Part of any completed project involves you showing the work to your target user. You might choose to sit them down and demonstrate it, then record their feedback directly, or you might choose to send them a copy and ask them to email you any responses. The important thing here is that you get feedback from your user that is definitely theirs. Try and ask them for things that they would like you to improve upon. The letter / email that you receive from them should be about half a page to a page long, listing at least the following:
 * General feedback about how easy the system is to use, talking about all users
 * How does the system meet their objectives
 * How easy was the system to set up
 * Criticisms of what they don't like
 * Suggestions about how they would like the system to be improved or extended
 * Signature and date

Analyse feedback
Now you have the feedback, was it good, was it bad, does it make you think you met all your objectives? What would you do differently next time?

Extensions
To get full marks you are going to have to think of some ways to improve your project. Saying something like: "I would make it better" is not good enough. What does that even mean? "I would add more levels" is equally naive unless you mention how this would make the system better. These extensions must be SMART!

You need to mention 3-4 things that given another few months you would implement in your system. Think big but not too big, the things you mention should be achievable and you need to show that you have thought out how you would make that change. For example:

"I could edit my program into an online system so I only need to update the code in one place instead to having to replace the program on each machine when a new version comes out. To do this I would rewrite my system in PHP with a MYSQL database back end."