Assignment 8: Final Project Report
Contents
Assignment 8: Final Project Report#
Assignment Introduction#
Final project! Well, you have all reached the end. Congratulations! For you final assignment of the course, you will be bringing everything you have worked on this quarter together into a final report and presentation.
Assignment Details#
The work for this assignment will completed in two forms: a formal report and a video presentation. Both report and video formats are described in the following sections. We will also have a more detailed discussion about how to structure these materials in class during week 7.
Part 1: Presentation and Video#
To complete part 1, you will be required to develop a formal presentation using a slide creation tool such as PowerPoint or Google Slides. Presentations should include all of the following:
Opening introduction to the project and all team members
An overview of where you are in the project
Any challenges that you have encountered through the life of the project
The lessons you have learned along the way
A brief wrap up or summary
A typical slide deck will break down as follows:
- Slide 1
Team name and team member names
- Slide 2
Introduction to the project
Discuss why it is important
Discuss your motivation for deciding on the project
- Slide 3-5
Describe the project
Explain what you built (or are building)
Discuss how you went about building it
- Slide 6
Discuss the challenges your team faced and how/if you solved them
- Slide 7
Discuss lessons learned through the project
- Slide 8
Closing slide that thanks your audience and any individuals or organizations that contributed to your work
Eight slides should be all you need, but If you feel that you need more slides you can add more.
Presentation#
Your presentation should be recorded using Zoom and submitted via the presentation assignment on Canvas. The team member hosting the Zoom session should be sure to configure their environment so that all participants are visible on screen. You must also enable live transcripts for the recording.
All team members must participate in the presentation. All team members must also have their camera on for the entirety of the recording. If there is an extenuating circumstance preventing you from presenting with your camera on, you may request an exception from the instructor.
The final recorded presentation should be a maximum of 6 minutes long. Presentations longer than 6 minutes risk not having their content viewed by the grading team and may lose points for missing content.
Grading Criteria#
Your presentation will be graded using the following criteria:
Presentation#
- Clarity and coherence of presentation
Is everything explained clearly to the audience?
- Coordination
How will is the team coordinated in the presentation?
Are transition between speakers effective and intuitive?
- Enthusiasm and participation
Did all team members participate in the presentation?
Were all team members engaged and energetic?
- Slide quality
Are the slides visually interesting?
Is the slide content clear, readable, and understandable?
Project Substance#
- Motivation
Is the motivation for the project convincing?
Does the team convince the audience that the project is worthwhile?
- Project Results
What is the quality of the project results?
How much work was put into the project?
- Identification of challenges
Do the challenges relate or connect with the course content?
- Quality of lessons learned
Does the team draw material from class (e.g., tools and techniques of project management) to come up with lessons learned?
Part 2: Report#
Part of the final project is a formal report on the work that you have completed to date. Your report should be a maximum of 8 pages (cover page, appendix, references, etc., excluded). Your report will consist of two sections: project content and team process.
As a group, create a new document in your group’s stage directory and name it TEAMNAME-assignment-8-final_project to work on your report.
Project Content#
The project content portion of your report should cover the details of the project itself. There is some flexibility to what you include here, and content will vary from team to team, but a good framework should include the following:
Motivation
Description of the project (Explain the work, describe final outcome, use graphics where needed)
Assessment of the project (What worked? What didn’t?)
Stakeholders (Who were they? How did you manage them?)
Challenges with carrying out the project
Team Process#
The team process portion of your report should cover the details of how you went about carrying out the project work. Again, we expect a lot of variation from team to team, but a good report should include all of the following:
Description of how you transitioned through team phases
Description of how you managed communication
Scope statement and a description of how well you were able to follow it
Gantt chart and schedule and a description of how well you were able to follow it
Team relations (discuss things like conflict, motivation, and resolution)
Challenges with the team process
Lessons learned (e.g., Schwalbe Chapter 4)
Grading Criteria#
Your final project reports will be graded according to the presence and quality of the criteria listed in the previous section. You will also receive a score for the professional quality of the work. We expect to see a completed document with good grammar, no typos, good formatting, and readability.
Submitting#
Once you have completed part 1, upload to canvas using the Team Presentation assignment page under Attendance and Participation. Once you have completed part 2, move your report file into the final directory in your Google workspace and submit a link to your documents on the Assignment 8 page on Canvas.
Ensure that all course staff have been added as members of your group directory and have edit permissions on your documents.
Grading#
This assignment is worth a total of 14 pts or 14 percent of your total grade. Part 1 is worth a total of 4 pts and part 2 is worth 10 pts. You must complete all requirements for this assignment accurately and on time to receive credit. Credit will be assigned to you as a group but removed on an individual basis for team members who do not participate in the work.