Last updated: November 10, 2006

Final Project Presentation

Your final CS 481 Project Presentation is to be a semi-formal presentation with PowerPoint slides. It must address all of the items listed below. You should plan on about 1 ½ hours for the presentation. Expect to be asked questions. 

Technical

• Review the project scope, problem statement, major use case(s), needs, vision, etc. with special emphasis on the customer’s perspective including an overview of background technical concepts needed to understand this project (if necessary).

• Summary of major product requirements & features.

• High-level design approach (architectural or block diagram showing major partitioning of solution and the interfaces between pieces)

• Product status. How well does the product solve the customer’s need? Are all requirements & features implemented? Are there any open defects that won’t be fixed?

• Suggest how this product might be improved by developing additional capabilities beyond what you have been able to accomplish this semester.

Team Performance

• Team collaboration & values. Provide an overall assessment of how you worked together as a team.

• Project Risks. Provide a list of risks that were anticipated at the beginning of the project. Identify what was done to minimize these risks. Identify if these risks or any unanticipated risks actually developed during your project and what you did about them.

• Schedule performance. How did you do against the baseline schedule for the semester?

• Did your project change direction while you were working on it?  If so, what did you learn that precipitated the change?

• Effort performance. Plot weekly hours. How did your actual effort compare to your planned effort?

• Effort distribution. Use a pie chart showing how total hours were distributed across reporting categories.

• Product size. Plot lines of code by week.  Was the amount of code about what you expected?

• Testing. Describe the way you tested your product.  In a qualitative sense answer the question "How well has your product been tested and how do you know you’re finished?" Be sure to discuss results from Beta testing. Include a plot of test cases generated and passing by week.

• Defects. Plot defects found and fixed by week. Try to generalize on what caused these defects (root cause analysis).  Were the number of defects found reasonable for the size and complexity of your project?

• Project Retrospective. Identify what you would do differently if you were going to do this project again. Are there things that you wouldn’t change?

• Identify some of the significant things you learned during the semester.  Describe your ability to use current techniques, skills and tools.  Describe how your educational experiences have contributed to a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in continuing professional development.