Computer Systems Project Proposal - Draft Sept. 11, 2006

1. Title (or subject area) of the project

2. Purpose and scope of the research project
   • what the project's about
   • what the goal is and what the scope is (if the project were completed, what it might look like)

3. Background and review of current literature/research in this area.
   • Some preliminary background of your topic.
   • What kinds of research has been done before in this area? What examples have you looked at?

4. Procedure and Methodology.
   • What tools (such as language(s)) are needed for programming in support of your project.
   • How do you think you may test your program for verification?
   • Can you segment your project into small units that can be achieved at 2-3 week intervals.
   • What materials and programming language(s)/tools will be necessary?

5. Testing and Analysis
   • How will you test your program to see how correct it is, to validate, to fix parts that aren't working, to find directions for improvement, and how to better design your work.
   • Dynamic testing: random types of input to your program, specific structural and functional testing (how you verify particular sections of your program are working correctly), path and branch testing (picking particular inputs that test internal paths of performance of your program
   • Process modeling: determining mathematical formulas that can be used to validate the performance of your program, check the predictive quality of your program. For example, how well does your program model existing or expected phenomena, and how well your program may be used to predict behaviors based on future input
   • Requirements and specifications: Defining requirements for your program and the structure of your program, outlining these requirements in written form, and defining specifications you can use for verifying how well your actual program meets these requirements.

6. Expected Results & Value to Others
   • What results do you expect to obtain from your project?
   • How will the final results and analyses be presented?
   • If the project were completed, how do you imagine it will perform?