GP1: Written Proposal

Due: Monday, Sep 16th

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Overview

The goal of the course project is for you to design and implement, in a team of 3–4 students, a substantial database application. All teams will select a project topic of their choice. The project must include sufficient opportunity to design tables and queries, allow a user to interact with the data, and display visual results.

Write a short and compelling proposal about a project that your team would like to pursue this semester. Note that you are not committing to a specific direction or set of requirements at this stage. The purpose of the proposal is to identify a project that is meaningful and feasible over the next few months.

Your proposal should be around 3 pages, single spaced with a blank line between paragraphs, and have 0.5-inch margins. The document should have about 1000 to 1500 words. You are expected to write professionally, use complete sentences, have no spelling errors, etc.

After the deadline, all proposals will be shared with the entire class. Each team will peer review proposals from two other teams using a provided rubric. You will play the role of consultants to help each other refine your ideas and project direction. The final version of your proposal, after incorporating peer feedback, will become the README.md file of your GitHub repository.

Instructions

Have one team member copy the example proposal in Google Docs (File > Make a Copy). Share the new document with the other members of the team. Each team member should contribute to the writing/editing of each section.

• Title/Names: Come up with a clever name of your project. The name does not have to have an acronym. Also come up with a clever team name. The short name will be used as your team's username on the database server and GitHub repository url.

• Introduction: Summarize the main idea of your project. What is the exact problem you are going to solve? What is your vision for the solution? How will this benefit potential stakeholders? (Ex: users, data owners, society)

• Primary System Entities: Identify the most significant entities and attributes of your project. After the table, provide additional details about the problem domain. For example, you may discuss questions about the data that your project will answer.

• Primary System Users: Describe the main users and how they would use your application. After the table, provide additional context or explanation about the users. For example, you may discuss their professions or experience with the data.

  • Note: In this project, you will likely not implement logins and user access controls. However, considering the users and use-cases is essential while designing the database.

• System Functionality: Identify two or more features of the application as level 2 headings. Under each feature, write high-level requirements as a bulleted list. Leave out technical details, such as what libraries or tools you'll use.

• About the Team: Include a short biographical sketch for each team member. Focus on academic and professional experience, not where you were born and what your hobbies are. For example, you might list the most recent CS courses you have taken, software projects you have worked on the in past, and/or background abilities and skills that you will bring to the project.

  • Note: The paragraphs in this section should be about the same length for each team member. Don't allow a team member to write significantly more or less about themselves.

Submission

Have one group member upload a PDF of your proposal to Gradescope. Add group members to your submission when uploading.