Design Proposal

1
Design Proposal

• A document prepared to (a) justify the need for
  the project, (b) describe the engineering process
  to be taken, (c) outline the expected results,
  and (c) estimate and justify the cost. ? A
  detailed plan of the project usually for the
  purpose of justifying/requesting substantial
  investment of time, effort, and resources
• A formal design proposal should include the
  following five components
• Objective (why?)
• Background/Introduction (who? Where?)
• Methodology (how? When?)
• Expected results (what?)
• Costs (how much?)

Reference Engineering by Design, by G. Voland,
chapter 2.5
2
Proposal (cont.)

• Objective A concrete statement describing what
  the project is trying to achieve and why. The
  objective should be written such that it can be
  assessed at the conclusion of a project. A
  well-posed objective has been commonly described
  to possess the following characteristics
  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and
  Time framed (SMART).
• Background who will be served (clients, users),
  where the products will be used (environment,
  special conditions). Also include existing
  solutions, prior work demonstrating a broad
  understanding of the project.
• Methodology state how the project will be
  tackled with detailed description of the
  engineering process to be taken.

3
Proposal (cont.)

• Methodology (cont.) Tasks and responsible
  persons should be identified. An important
  element will be a detailed schedule for the
  expected completion of these tasks. The most
  widely used schedule is the Gantt chart (a
  graphical representation for easy reading).
  (read Chapter 7 of textbook for more information)
  
• Terminology Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a
  grouped list of tasks with an estimate of efforts
  and resources required to complete the task.
• (Critical Path Method) (CPM) is another useful
  tool to indicate time schedule. It has the
  advantage to identify more clearly tasks with
  different priorities for decision making.
  Indication of sequential and/or parallel
  relationship between tasks.

4
Proposal (cont.)

• Expected Results expected outcomes and what
  types of deliverables should be described. Both
  risks and benefits involved should be discussed.
• Costs estimated how much will the project cost
  (the bottom line of a business decision) money,
  time, labor, materials, facilities, all other
  economical factors.

5
Assignment 2, due Feb. 4 (Wednesday)

• Prepare a design proposal for the design project
  your team chooses (a senior capstone project, or
  a class project, or a project of interest)
• Your team has to turn in the description of the
  project chosen by Jan 28 (no longer than one
  page).
• Include all five components discussed in your
  proposal. Note A description/discussion is
  needed for each of the five sections indicating
  how do you implement these concepts (perform a
  self-analysis in the appendix at the end of your
  proposal). For example, specify why your
  objective has satisfied the SMART
  characteristics. Your grade will also be
  dependent on how thoroughly you describe your
  tasks.