11 Useful Tips to Write a Structured MBA Project Report: Academic Year 2023

The project report is an extremely important aspect of MBA project. MBA project work aims to foster students with an opportunity to develop conceptual, analytical, communication and interpersonal skills. It should be properly structured and also necessary and appropriate information regarding the project. The aim of MBA Project is to produce a good product and a good report and that questionaries, software, data analysis, theory etc. that you developed during the project are merely a means to this end. Rationale of the MBA project study has to be progressively converted to a project report as and when the various stages of project are completed. Ideally you should produce the bulk of the report as you go along and use the last week or two to bring it together into a coherent document.

How to Write an MBA Project Report

A tidy, well laid out and consistently formatted document makes for easier reading and is suggestive of a careful and professional attitude towards its preparation. Remember that quantity does not automatically guarantee quality. A 150 pages report is not twice as good as a 75 pages one, nor a 10,000 line implementation twice as good as a 5,000 line one. Conciseness, clarity, and elegance are invaluable qualities in report writing, and will be rewarded appropriately. Instructions of your University regarding format of the MBA project to be followed carefully. For example, the format of entire main body of text in the report should be typed in Times New Roman with 12 font size, text must be justified with line spacing of 1.5 throughout the report, one-inch margin must be maintained consistently in all four sides of the page, headings and subheadings must be typed in bold etc etc.

Please ensure that your MBA project report should contains the following elements:

1. Design a Title page for your MBA Project
   This should include the project title and the name, enroll number etc of the author/ student of the report. You can also list the name of your supervisor.
2. Write an Abstract of your MBA Project
   The abstract is a very brief summary of the report's contents. It should be about one full page long. Somebody unfamiliar with your project should have a good idea of what it's about having read the abstract alone and will know whether it will be of interest to them.
3. Acknowledge those who have contributed in your MBA Project
   It is usual to thank those individuals who have provided particularly useful assistance, technical or otherwise, during your MBA project. Your supervisor will obviously be pleased to be acknowledged as he or she will have invested quite a lot of time overseeing your progress.
4. List out the Contents page of MBA Project Report
   This should list the main chapters and (sub)sections of your report. Choose self-explanatory chapter and section titles and use double spacing for clarity. If possible you should include page numbers indicating where each chapter/section begins. Try to avoid too many levels of subheading - three is sufficient.
5. Introduce your MBA Project Report
   This is one of the most important components of the MBA project report. It should begin with a clear statement of what the project is about so that the nature and scope of the MBA Project can be understood by a reader. It should summarize everything you set out to achieve, provide a clear summary of the project's background, relevance and main contributions. The introduction should set the context for the project and should provide the reader with a summary of the key things to look out for in the remainder of the report. The introduction itself should be largely non-technical. It is useful to state the main objectives of the MBA project as part of the introduction.
6. Write background of your MBA poject work
   The background section of the report should set the project into context and give the proposed layout for achieving the project objectives and goals. The background section can be included as part of the introduction but is usually better as a separate chapter, especially if the project involved significant amount of ground work. When referring to other pieces of work, cite the sources where they are referred to or used, rather than just listing them at the end.
7. Now write Body of your MBA Project report
   The central part of the report usually consists of three or four chapters detailing the technical work undertaken during the MBA project. The structure of these chapters is highly project dependent. They can reflect the chronological development of the project, e.g. market survey, about the organization (s) studied, implementation, data analysis, findings of the MBA project, and evaluation etc. It should also document any interesting problems with, or features of, your implementation. Integration and testing are also important to discuss in some cases. You need to discuss the content of these sections thoroughly with your supervisor.
8. List out the Findings of your MBA Project work
   MBA project reports should have detailed mention of data analysis, evaluation and findings. It is extremely important that you evaluate what you have done both in absolute terms and in comparison with existing techniques, tools, software etc. This might involve quantitative evaluation and qualitative evaluation such as expressibility, future uses etc. At some point you should also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of what you have done. Avoid statements like "The project has been a complete success and we have solved the problem (s) of an Organisation...! It is important to understand that there is no such thing as a perfect project. Even the very best pieces of work have their limitations and you are expected to provide a proper critical appraisal of what you have done.
9. Write the Conclusions and Future Work in your MBA Project work
   The project's conclusions should list the things which have been learnt as a result of the work you have done. Avoid tedious personal reflections. It is common to finish the report by listing ways in which the project can be taken further.
10. Mention Bibliography of your MBA Project Report
    This consists of a list of all the books, articles, manuals etc. used in the project and referred to in the report. You should provide enough information to allow the reader to find the source. In the case of a text book you should quote the name of the publisher as well as the author(s). A weakness of many reports is inadequate citation of a source of information. It's easy to get this right so there are no excuses. Each entry in the bibliography should list the author(s) and title of the piece of work and should give full details of where it can be found.
11. Write an Appendix of the MBA Project Report
    The appendices contain information which is peripheral to the main body of the report. Information typically included are things like parts of the code, tables, test cases or any other material which would break up the theme of the text if it appeared in situ. You should try to bind all your material in a single volume and create the black book.