BMS Project Report Format: Chapters, Charts and What Examiners Check

Key takeaway

A BMS project report is a research study, so it follows the research structure: what you set out to find, how you studied it, what the data showed, and what you conclude. It has front matter, six to eight chapters, a bibliography and an annexure with your questionnaire. Every survey question is presented the same way: a table, a chart, an interpretation.

Colleges differ on details. Where your department has issued a format, follow it; use this guide for everything it leaves open.

Front matter

In order:

1. Cover page: title, your name and roll number, course, guide, college, academic year
2. Certificate, signed by your guide, the coordinator and the principal
3. Declaration by the student
4. Acknowledgement (how to write one)
5. Executive summary: one page on what you studied and what you found
6. Table of contents, list of tables, list of charts

Chapter by chapter

1. Introduction

Background of the topic, meaning and definitions, why the topic matters, statement of the problem, objectives (three to five, each starting with "To study" or "To analyse"), hypotheses if your college asks for them, scope, limitations, and a short scheme of the report.

2. Review of literature

Summaries of earlier studies, articles and reports on your topic, each with its author and year, ending with the research gap: what they did not cover that your study does. Cite only sources you have actually read.

3. Research methodology

• Research design: descriptive, exploratory or analytical
• Sample: who you surveyed, how many, how they were chosen, and where
• Data sources: primary (your questionnaire, interviews) and secondary (books, journals, websites, company reports)
• Tools: percentage analysis, charts, and any statistical test you used
• Limitations of the method

4. Profile or field study

The organisation, industry or area you studied: history, products or services, how it operates. A SWOT analysis fits here, as does a summary of any interview with an owner or manager.

5. Data analysis and interpretation

The centre of the report, and where most of the marks are. For each question in your questionnaire:

1. A numbered table: options, number of respondents, percentage, and a total row
2. A numbered chart drawn from that table
3. An interpretation of two to four sentences saying what the numbers mean, not repeating them

End the chapter by testing your hypotheses against the data.

6. Findings and suggestions

Findings as numbered points, each traceable to a table in Chapter 5. Then suggestions that follow from the findings: practical, specific, and addressed to someone (the company, customers, policy makers).

7. Conclusion

What the study set out to do, what it found, and what future studies could look at.

Bibliography and annexure

Books, journal articles, reports and websites in a consistent style, then the questionnaire exactly as respondents saw it.

Presenting survey data well

• Percentages must add up to 100 and counts to your sample size. Examiners check this first.
• Pie or donut chart for parts of a whole; bar or column chart for comparisons. Do not use 3D charts.
• Label everything: a table number and title above the table, a figure number and caption below the chart.
• Never invent data. Collect it with a Google Form if you have little time: even 50 honest responses are better than 200 made-up ones, and your viva will be about them.

Typography and layout

Common practice, unless your college says otherwise: A4 paper, 12 pt body text with 1.5 line spacing, justified, chapter titles in bold capitals, page numbers at the bottom centre, each chapter starting on a new page. The general rules are in the Blackbook Format guide.

Common mistakes

• Objectives in Chapter 1 that the findings never come back to
• A literature review that is copied definitions with no studies in it
• Charts with no interpretation under them
• A sample size in the methodology that does not match the totals in the tables
• A bibliography of website home pages

Getting a first draft quickly

BlackBook's project report maker writes this structure from your title and course: every chapter, survey tables with charts drawn from them, a SWOT matrix, findings and a questionnaire. The survey numbers it writes are sample values, clearly marked: replace them with the responses you collected, and the charts redraw from your numbers. You can read a full one first on the sample project report page, and see how it differs from a technical report in Blackbook vs Project Report.