ICS 125: How to propose a project
Understand your project description
- Read it carefully
- Read any linked documents
- Read about things mentioned, search Google to find them
- Look into similar projects or products
- Interview the customer
- Discuss your ideas with your team
Why write a proposal?
- Force yourself to think through your ideas and put them into words
- This proposal will become the project "vision" document
- Prove to yourself that the project is worth doing
- Prove to yourself that the project is feasible
- Prove to management that the project is worth doing
- Prove to management that the project is likely to succeed (on time and budget)
- Start to outline the plan
Write the proposal
- Proposal
- Fill in the proposal template
- Background and motivation
- Clearly state the goal
- Define the scope: In/out list
- Deliverables
- High-level outline of risks and rewards
- Target and Benefits
- Draft plan
- Fill in the plan template
- What is your methodology?
- Outline steps to be done
- Outline schedule
- List risks and discuss how you will address them
- Draft resource needs
- Legal worksheet
- Fill in the legal issues template
- Who owns various pieces of intelectual property?
- Do any laws or regulations apply to your product?
- Does your product raise safety, security, or privacy issues?
- Use the worksheet
sample use cases templateexample software testing plan templateProject plan template