Critical Design
During this phase, the overall architecture of the system is designed to meet the specified requirements. This includes defining the system components, creating engineering models and drawings, defining a full software architecture, defining all interfaces, specifying operating environment, creating a bill of materials, etc.
Critical Design Review Executive Summary
Must be two pages or less
Project Title: [Your Project Title]
Team Name: [Your Team Name]
Date: [Submission Date]
1. Project Overview
- Briefly summarize your project.
- Briefly provide overview of Key Success Measures, including any changes that have happened since the last review.
2. Detailed Design
- Present your full detailed design including subsystems, modules, interfaces, etc. Reference detailed artifacts while including enough detail in the Executive Summary to fully explain your design.
- Summarize your test plans and preliminary results and reference test procedures and preliminary results that are included as artifacts.
- Reference included completed design documents such as: BOM, SBOM, UML diagrams, flowcharts, use case diagrams, block diagrams, engineering drawings, schematics, wireframes, test plans, preliminary prototyping test results, calculations, models, etc.
3. State of Design
- How close to final is your design? What do you still need to do? What concerns do you have? What key design decisions will need to be made shortly? What potential roadblocks do you foresee? What do you need to do to overcome those roadblocks?
4. Schedule and Work Plan
- Key tasks and dates to consider for entire scope of project (purchase orders, long lead-time hardware, etc)
- Details about team's work plan, including project-specific key tasks (like coding modules, building subsystems, testing components, analyzing specific data, etc) until your Project Build and Test Review. Who will be doing what and when? (Either by individual or subteams)
Possible Documentation/Artifacts (will vary based on your project)
- Bill of Materials (BOM)
- Software BOM
- UML diagrams
- flowcharts
- use case diagrams
- block diagrams
- engineering drawings
- schematics
- wireframes
- test plans
- preliminary prototyping test results
- calculations
- models
- schedule details (Gantt charts, project management software screenshots, etc)
Critical Design Review Presentation
- Simplified Project Overview – 1 slide
- Project Value Proposition (updated) – 1 slide
- Thorough explanation of design – 1-4 slides
- Plan & Schedule (details from now until Project Build and Test Review and overall project schedule) – 2 slides
- Show us where you’re at – show and tell prototypes, github repository, etc
- How do you know your design meets the requirements? – 1-2 slides
Grading Criteria
Executive Summary
100 points
1. (20 points) Overall professionalism, grammatically correct, make sense overall
2. (10 points) Overview
- Has the team succinctly and intelligibly summarized the concept architecture?
- Are changes to KSMs clear and explained?
3. (30 points) Detailed Design
- Does the design description make sense?
- Has the test plan been adequately addressed?
- Do included visuals make sense?
- Are appropriate artifacts referenced?
- Do referenced artifacts provide additional useful information?
4. (30 points) State of Design
- Is it obvious where the team is in the design?
- Does the team demonstrate a good understanding of what else they need to figure out?
- Has the team thoughtfully addressed concerns, potential roadblocks, etc. and considered how to meet the challenges?
5. (10 points) Schedule and Work Plan
- Has the team thoughtfully planned out the larger details and long lead-time type decisions that need to be made?
- Does the team have a reasonable plan for the work from now until Project Build and Test Review? Is it clear who will be doing what? Are all team members being used effectively?
- Does the build schedule and test plan seem to be thoughtfully considered? Does it seem reasonable?
Presentation
(50 points total)
1. (5 points) Overall professionalism, everyone on time and dressed professionally, slides are clean and clear
2. (5 points) Simplified Project Overview (1 slide)
- Has the team succinctly and intelligibly summarized the concept architecture?
- Are changes to KSMs clear and explained?
3. (5 points) Updated Project Value Proposition (1 slide)
- Have requirements shifted based on sponsor needs?
- Does the team continue to demonstrate an understanding of sponsor’s business needs?
- Is the team maintaining good communication with the sponsor?
4. (10 points) Detailed Design (1-4 slides)
- Does the design make sense?
- Has the test plan been adequately addressed?
5. (10 point) Verification (1-2 slides)
- Did the team show that the design will meet the requirements?
- Do you have confidence that the design will meet the requirements?
6. (10 points) Show and Tell
- Did the team show prototypes to explain the design (physical prototype, github repository, video demo, etc)?
- Do the prototypes support the team’s design decisions?
- Does the team demonstrate a good understanding of what else they need to figure out?
- Has the team thoughtfully addressed concerns, potential roadblocks, etc. and considered how to meet the challenges?
7. (5 point) Schedule and Work Plan (1-2 slides)
- Has the team thoughtfully planned out the larger details and long lead-time type decisions that need to be made?
- What is the team's plan from now until Project Build and Test Review? Who will be doing what and when?
- Does the build schedule and test plan seem to be thoughtfully considered? Does it seem reasonable?