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College of Engineering
Capstone

Project Build and Test

In this phase, the system design is translated into a physical and/or software solution. This will involve developing software, building hardware components, integrating off-the-shelf products, or a combination of these approaches (depending on the project). At the completion of this stage, the primary development work will be complete. Teams should have a functioning, though not yet optimized, prototype or demo that will be refined and fully tested for performance during the final weeks of the semester.

Project Build and Test Executive Summary

Project Title: [Your Project Title]
Team Name: [Your Team Name]
Date: [Submission Date]

1. Project Overview

  • Overview of project. Include Key Success Measures and current value proposition.

2. Project Completion Status

Depending on your project and its current status, consider including the following discussion points:

  • How well is your project working? What stretch goals might you pursue?
  • Does your implementation match the design presented in your critical design review? Did you have to make changes? How have you documented the changes?
  • If your project is not completely functional at this point, explain why it is not and detail your recovery plan.

3. Project Test and Verification/Validation

Depending on your project and its current status, consider including the following discussion points:

  • Summarize your test results. Reference test artifacts as necessary.
  • Does your project meet your requirements? If not, what is your plan to optimize your product so that it does? (Verification)
  • Have your requirements or KSMs changed? If so, what is the justification for the changes?
  • How have you validated with your sponsor that the product is desirable and transferable? Does it meet their needs? (Validation)

4. Schedule and Work Plan

  • Details about work plan until the Final Design Review
  • If you’ve already met your KSMs, what will you do to continue to improve the product?
  • Are there changes that need to be made to your documentation to reflect changes that were made during project build and test?

5. Outline for Final Design Package (THIS SHOULD BE A SEPARATE DOCUMENT AND DOES NOT COUNT AS PART OF THE TWO PAGES FOR THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY)

  • This should include a thorough outline of all the documentation that will be included in your final design package and will form the basis of the Final Design Package.
  • What documentation still needs to be completed to provide your sponsor with a complete design package? DENOTE which items in your outline are complete and which still need to be completed.

Possible Documentation

At this point, the team should be working toward a Final Design Package. The Final Design package should include everything needed for complete transfer to the sponsor FOR YOUR PROJECT. Final versions of each document are not expected at this time, as some results will likely be forthcoming and final refinements will still need to be made.

Put yourself in the place of your sponsor. If you were an engineer seeing this project for the first time and were tasked with continuing or implementing the project, would you have everything you need to do that?

Presentation

  • Updated project overview
  • Updated requirements with sponsor approval
  • Status of design and prototyping
  • Roadblocks
  • Testing results so far
  • List of design documentation that will be delivered to sponsor as System Design Package

Grading Criteria

Executive Summary

100 points

1. (10 points) Overall professionalism, grammatically correct, make sense overall

2. (10 points) Overview 

  • Has the team succinctly and intelligibly summarized the concept architecture?
  • Has the team thoughtfully considered the value proposition and how their work impacts that?

3. (30 points) Build

  • Is the status of the project clear?
  • Are changes to the original plan addressed?
  • Are changes documented?
  • Does the team seem to have an understanding of what still needs to be done/can be done?

4. (30 points) Test and Verification/Validation

  • Has the team clearly shown whether or not the project meets the requirements?
  • Have changes to KSMs or other requirements been clearly justified/explained?
  • Is it evident that the team clearly has communicated with the sponsor about the transferability/desirability of the project and gotten their feedback?
  • Do they have a clear understanding of what is needed to completely validate the product?

5. (10 points) Schedule and Work Plan

  • Does the team have a reasonable plan for the final stretch, including optimizations and/or additional features?
  • Has the team thoughtfully considered the documentation? Have updates been made appropriately?

6. (10 points) Final Design Package outline

  • Has the team communicated with the sponsor about what the sponsor wants in the final design package?
  • Based on the outline, does it look like someone could take the Final Design Package and continue development or implement the project with ease?

Presentation

(50 points total)

1. (5 points) Overall professionalism, everyone on time and dressed professionally, slides are clean and clear

2. (5 points) Updated Project Overview  (1 slide)

  • Has the team succinctly and intelligibly summarized the project and its impact to the sponsor?

3. (5 points) Updated Requirements (1-2 slides)

  • Are changes to the original plan addressed?
  • Are changes documented?
  • Does the team have sponsor approval for changes?

4. (15 points) Status of Design and Prototyping (slides/demo)

  • Did the team provide a demo of a working system?
  • Have the KSMs been met? If not, is there a clear plan in place for how the team will meet them?
  • Is the current status of the project obvious?
  • Does the team demonstrate a clear understanding of what else needs to be done?

5. (5 points) Roadblocks (1 slide)

  • Has the team acknowledged and addressed roadblocks?
  • Is the team’s plan for overcoming roadblocks reasonable?

6. (10 points) Test Results (1-3 slides)

  • Has adequate testing been performed to ensure the project will meet the requirements?
  • Do you have confidence future test plans are adequate to fully validate the results?
  • Has the team clearly shown whether or not the project meets the requirements?
  • Does the team have a clear understanding of what is needed to completely validate the product?

7. (5 points) List of System Design Package documents

  • Did the team provide a thorough list of documentation to be provided to sponsor as the System Design Package?
  • Do these documents, when combined, ensure a transferable design?