Document (descriptions below table) |
Due Date |
Systems Life Cycle Review |
Friday Jan 18 |
Initial Project Proposal Oral (part A only) |
Tuesday Jan 22 |
Initial Project Proposal Written (parts A and B) |
Tuesday Jan 22 |
Mid Term Update Written |
Tuesday Feb 26 |
Mid Term Update Oral |
Tuesday Feb 26 |
Final Report Written (parts A and B) |
Friday April 12 |
Final Report Oral (part A only) |
Tuesday April 2 & 16 |
Project Poster |
Tuesday April 9 |
Weekly Updates |
every Monday 8:00 A.M. |
Weekly Updates
Students will "REPLY" to the assignment message of the week by Mon 8:00 AM with their progress report. Include 1) What you've accomplished during the past week and the approximate number of hours spent on each of the various tasks. 2) What you hope to accomplish during the current week. 3) Problems that have come up and how you intend to deal with them. 4) Any questions you have for me.
Systems Life Cycle Review
Step 1) Find your old systems analysis or software engineering text book or get one from the library or borrow one from a friend. Find and read the chapter(s) which lay out a model of the Software Development Life Cycle.
Step 2) The paper: a) Write an explanation of the life cycle summarizing the various steps in the process. b) Discuss how this model may/may not apply to your project. [expectation is 2 pages single-spaced]
Initial Project Proposal
Part A - The technical description
A description of the functionality of your project. What do you hope to accomplish, who is your client, what tools you foresee using, etc... Give as much detail as you can at this time. Consider user interfaces, background data storage and retrieval, etc... [expectation is 3-50 pages single-spaced]
Part B - The learning objectives
A description of the learning aspects of the project. What new skills, technical and managerial, will you learn from doing your project? In what ways will the project stretch you? What related projects have you done in the past and how does this differ from them? [expectation is 2-4 pages single-spaced]
Presentation to class (part A only)
A 5-15 minute presentation to the class providing an introduction to your project. Goals, clients etc...
Mid Term Up Date
Written
The midterm update report is an extension of the initial project proposal. If you knew then what you know now what would you have written in your proposal. i.e. How has the project changed over the last six weeks, what is the current status of the project, what can you realistically expect to complete 'on-time' and what will be left for future 'upgrades'. Those of us who had very short initial proposals will have the opportunity to provide a more satisfying technical description of the proposed project. [expectation is 5-50 pages single-spaced]
Oral
A 10 minute presentation to the class providing a progress report on the status of your project. Possible demos of front-ends, prototypes, user interfaces etc... .
Project Poster
The class will participate in the Winter Research Poster Session with the science students.
Final Report
Part A - The technical description
This is intended to be a major document including a non-technical introduction to the project, a technical description of the project, user documentation, possible future enhancements, etc... [expectation is a formal, permanent document of considerable size with major appendices, multiple components etc... ]
Part B - The learning objectives
A critique of the project experience possibly including but not limited to: technical and mangerial skills learned, "What I would do differently next time...", "Why we came in late and over budget...", "Even though it never worked I learned so much..." etc...[expectation is 2-4 pages single-spaced]
Class Presentation(part A only)
A 20-30 minute (formal) presentation to the class providing a final report on your project. Possible demos etc... .