Every piece of graded work in the course, what it is worth, and when it is due.
There are four pieces in total, and it is worth saying early that they are really all the same piece of work seen from different angles. You choose a queue in week 1, you measure it properly, you argue about who it costs, you change something about it, and all the while you keep a record of every other queue you happened to stand in along the way. Nobody is asking you to start from scratch four times.
Nothing here is an exam, and nothing here is a group project either. Every deadline falls on a Friday at 17:00, which we have kept deliberately boring so that you never have to go looking for it.
4 pieces, 100% in total.
What you hand in#
The weights and the dates are all in the chart above. What follows is what each deadline actually asks you to produce, so you can see the shape of it before you start.
| Piece | What you hand in | Length |
|---|---|---|
| The Measured Queue | A report as a PDF, plus your raw observation sheets as a second file | 1500 words at most |
| Whose Time It Was | An essay as a PDF | 1200 to 1800 words |
| The Queue Journal | Eleven weekly entries and a closing note, in one PDF | 100 to 250 words an entry |
| The Redesign | A proposal as a PDF, and an eight minute defence in the week 12 field session | 2000 words at most |
Everything goes through the assessment portal on this site, named
SLOP3068-A1-u1234567.pdf and so on, with your own student number. Each brief
has the full requirements, the report structure and what the marker is looking
for against each criterion.
The Measured Queue
Observe one real queue for at least 90 minutes and report its arrival rate, service rate, utilisation and mean wait, with the method behind each figure.
Due 26 March 2027 · Weight: 25%
Whose Time It Was
An essay of 1200 to 1800 words arguing about how one queue distributes waiting, with evidence and the strongest case against you stated in full.
Due 30 April 2027 · Weight: 20%
The Queue Journal
Eleven weekly entries of 100 to 250 words on queues you were in or watched, plus a closing note, submitted once as a single document.
Due 21 May 2027 · Weight: 20%
The Redesign
A 2000 word proposal for one change to the queue you measured, with the predicted effect worked out, plus an eight minute defence in week 12.
Due 28 May 2027 · Weight: 35%
What the weights are saying#
The Redesign is worth more than everything else because it is the only piece that asks you to be wrong in public, in advance, with the arithmetic on the page. The Measured Queue is worth a quarter because a redesign built on bad measurement is a guess with a diagram attached.
The Queue Journal is worth as much as the essay, which surprises people. It is eleven weeks of small honest effort against one weekend of large effort, and the course has a view about which of those is harder.
Late work and extensions#
The policies page has the rules. Read it before you need it.
Needing more time is ordinary and asking early is free. Ask for an extension has the form.