Progress Reports and Presentations

While we will frequently exchange information through weekly meetings over the course of the semester, two formal progress reports and presentations are required. Each report should include the following information (it does not need to be in this order).

• Overview
  • A brief overview of your project and client. This may be very similar (or even identical) to material included in your system design document.
  • An overview of your processes. What are the roles of the members of your group (we discussed these in your team meetings)? What are the mechanisms you are using to keep up with Agile/Scrum methodologies?
• Current status of the project
  • What is the status of communication with your client?
    • If any requirements from your client have changed, discuss them.
  • What has been completed so far? Make your work more concrete through images.
    • Identify what has changed since your System Design
  • To contextualize your progress and remaining work, include your burn down chart. This should also give a visual approximation of the work that you have left to complete.
• Challenges and reflections
  • This may include technical challenges related to the construction of your application, communication challenges that are related to your client, or team challenges that are related to your team-based processes (for example, keeping up with Agile/Scrum).
  • How are you planning on meeting those challenges? Make this as concrete as possible. For example ‘work harder’ isn’t a concrete solution. Instead, 'meeting two more hours per week' would help. Tell me how you will enforce team accountability and transparency that directly results in productivity.
• Plan for the rest of the semester
  • What are you focusing on now?
  • What are the critical points of potential failure? (What are you worried about?)
  • Given your current trajectory, when do you expect to complete an alpha version of your product?

Deliverables

• Dates: See the Course Schedule for the due dates for reports and presentations.
• Written Report: The written report is expected 3-5 pages, or 1,200-1,500 words. Refer to our writing rubric
• Presentation: Each of your two progress reports will be accompanied by a presentation.
• Each presentation will be 10 minutes long with five minutes for questions.
• Your first presentation should focus on your product and client communication. Do not spend time on your team processes for this presentation.
• What is your project and who is your client?
• What is the current status of the project - have any of the goals changed? What feedback have you received back from your client?
• What are the technical or design challenges that threaten your progress (what are the critical points of failure)?
• When do you expect to complete an alpha version of your product (show a burndown chart)?
• Your second presentation should include, in addition tothe questions above, reflection about your team processes.
• Refer to our presentation rubric