The dissertation report template is written in simple latex, without creating horrendous classes or any stupid hell of codes.
To get started, open the details.tex in metadata folder and edit the values of your title, name etc. You can add your own border by replacing the border.jpg file in assets folder (and rename the new file to border.jpg).
You can add your own \usepackage statements to usepackages.tex and also your own \newcommand or \def statements to defintions.tex file in the metadata folder.
Further, add your acknowledgement and abstract to their respective .tex files in the same folder.
Create your thesis chapters in the folder Chapters in the form of chapter#.tex (i.e. chapter1.tex, chapter2.tex, ... ) please stick to the naming convention, and set the \numChapters in the details.tex to the number of chapters. (Adding \newpage at the beginning and end of all the chapter#.tex files is suggested).
Add your references as bibtex entries to the references.bib file in metadata folder.
After this compile the THESIS.tex file, you will have your thesis ready.