A Sample Research Proposal with Comments
A research project or thesis will take at least two semesters to complete. Prior to starting a research, i.e.
enrolling in the first semester research course, students must go through the proposal stage, during which
students will develop their proposal and have it reviewed by his/her research advisor. This means that students
need months of planning and background research work before the start of the first semester research. Students
are not allowed to enroll in a research course without an approved proposal. For students planning to start their
research in the fall semester, the deadline for the proposal submission (to your advisor) is July 15. For those
who plan to start in the spring semester, the proposal deadline is December 1. During the proposal stage,
students should discuss their research interests with CM faculty members, identify a research topic, conduct
preliminary literature review and develop a project proposal. The proposal should discuss problem statement,
objectives, research methodology, research activities, and a time schedule in about 3-5 pages. A sample
proposal is attached here for your reference.
A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management
Provide a brief and meaningful title to
your project
1. Introduction
Every construction project is unique and has its own operating
environment and sets of technical requirements. As a result, the execution
of a construction project is subject to numerous constraints that limit the
commencement or progression of field operations, which invariably have
significant negative impact on overall project performance. By definition,
constraints refer to any condition, such as temporal/spatial limitations and
safety/quality concerns, which may prevent a project to achieve its goals.
Successful execution and control of a construction project relies on effective
identification and management of constraints through master planning and
short-term look-ahead scheduling. While the master schedule provides a
global view of a project and the overall execution strategy, a look-ahead
schedule offers a detail account of operational constraints and a detailed
plan showing work to be done within a relatively short time window.
Ideally, these detailed schedules should reflect actual field conditions and
provide field personnel with operation instructions free of constraints and
conflicts (Hinze 2008). This look-ahead scheduling and constraint analysis
procedure is also a critical component of the last-planner methodology
proposed by Ballard (2000). This research project will provide an overview
of state-of-art schedule constraint analysis practice during look-ahead
scheduling. In addition, it will propose a conceptual framework for
managing constraints.
Background or introduction section
provides a description of the basic
facts and importance of the research
area - What is your research area, the
motivation of research, and how
important is it for the industry
practice/knowledge advancement?
2. Problem Statement
The importance of developing a constraint-free and reliable work
plan has long been recognized by the industry. However, numerous
construction projects are still plagued by delays and cost overruns, which
can frequently be traced to ineffective identification and treatment of
constraints. First, when a constraint is not properly identified during
scheduling, subsequent conflicts in the field are inevitable. Today’s projects
are becoming more and more technically complex and logistically
challenging, which exposes construction operations to even more complex
constraints. Second, the traditional scheduling methods, bar charts and
Critical Path Method (CPM) which are widely used as a basis for constraint
analysis, greatly limit our capability in modeling and resolving constraints
Problem statement provides a clear
and concise description of the issues
that need to be addressed - What is
the specific problem in that research
area that you will address (e.g. lack of
understanding of a subject, low
performance …)?