Milestone Plan

Overview

Because our group projects are large enough and the duration is long enough, if we are not careful, we could get off track.

To help stay on track, you will propose a schedule for your project with milestone deliverables along the way. You get to choose what you will have done for each milestone date, but you will be held accountable for your commitments, so make sure you put thought into it.

That being said, your milestones do need to show good progress toward the end goal (they cannot simply be a list of easy steps with the large project at the end).

Milestone Change Requests

With regard to milestones, the natural question arises: what if our milestone needs to change?

Hopefully our design will be thorough enough that our milestones will not need to change, but if down the road, something unforeseen causes you to need to change your milestone deliverables, we will have a process in place for this.

To change deliverables, you will need to submit a Milestone Change Request form to the instructor. This form will list the previous deliverables, the requested new deliverables, and the reason for the change. The instructor will then evaluate request and allow or deny it. Please note that reasons for the change should be unforeseen circumstances or challenges, NOT "we haven't been able to devote as much time as we hoped."

Milestone change requests cannot be submitted after Monday night on the week of the milestone.

Feature Change Requests

Similarly, if circumstances require a change to the overall features of the project, you must submit a feature change request to both the instructor and sponsor for their approval.

These should be rare, but there may be times when it is simply not possible to implement a feature as promised (e.g., actual technical limitations, such as an API not providing the necessary data).

Milestone Deadlines

Milestones are due at midnight Saturday Night on the lessons noted:

Week 10
Week 12
Week 14

Assignment

As a team, create a document that lists each milestone - each containing a bulleted list of deliverables. These deliverables should be specific and measurable enough for you to accurately report and/or demonstrate that they have been completed.

For example, "make good progress on the GUI" is not a good deliverable, whereas "All GUI controls are displayed in their correct locations, but their functionality is not complete yet" is specific enough to report on.