CSCI 265 Project Phase 4: Proof of concept (and updates)

This phase can be regarded as the transition between design and implementation. It is far lighter on documentation than previous phases, as it is expected the team will be dealing with the technical hurdles of setting up the necessary tools/technology for your chosen language(s) and platform(s), plus the coding challenges associated with getting a proof-of-concept working. of your product.

Deliverables for phase 4 are divided into three key areas:

*The individual contribution assessments are due 48 hours after the other documentation.

Marks breakdown [30 marks total]


Project update and document revisions

A formal project update should be provided in an update.md file, outlining All changes noted should, of course, be reflected in the other relevant project markdown document(s) and team repo files/structure where appropriate.


The proof-of-concept document

The intent in this phase is for the team to demonstrate to themselves and the client (instructor) that the project design is feasible, i.e. that the core functionality can be successfully implemented by Dec. 6th following the current design.

To accomplish this, there are four key elements, each of which should be addressed in the document:

Identifying the core technical challenges:
By this point in the design process, the team should be aware of (most of) the major hurdles they will face in implementing their design. This section of the document is intended to outline each of those challenges in sufficient detail to explain the problem and why it is a key area of concern/focus.

Determining what is necessary to demonstrate each challenge can be met:
The goal of this phase is to convince the team and the client(instructor) that the core of the product can be successfully implemented by the due date (Dec. 6th). In this section the intent is to detail specifically how each of the challenges identified above will be met. This might be by implementing a single program that shows all can be met, or by creating a small set of programs demonstrating the challenges being met individually. The documentation here should outline the code components that need to be created, the accompanying assets that need to be created, and any servers/tools that need to be set up/configured.

Producing the code and other assets to meet each challenge:
The team should decide (and document) where the proof of concept elements should reside. It's possible (likely?) that you won't want the proof of concept code mixed in with the rest of the 'real' project code, so the creation of a separate project branch or separate directory in the repo are both possibilities.

The team should create the necessary code, setup/configure any tools/servers needed, and create any assets needed to perform live demos of the proof of concept.

The proof of concept document should clearly indicate where the associated code and other elements can be found (typically their branch and location within the team github repository).

Where tools/servers need any significant setup or configuration, the necessary steps should be documented somewhere in the team repo and the location of that documentation should be noted in the proof-of-concept document.

Assessing the results of the proof-of-concept and any implications:
The proof-of-concepts may or may not be entirely successful, and may actually reveal new challenges the team had not previously been aware of (or had not recognized the full importance of).

The precise structure of this section will likely vary from team to team, but in it the team should assess:

Sample documentation: as with previous phases, sample documentation for phase 4 can be found in the example project documentation.


The presentation

As with previous phases, each team will provide a 10-14 minute formal presentation discussing their current deliverables.

This presentation should


Assessment and marks

Be sure all team members have read the contributions assessment page, and complete and submit their assessments by 8pm Sunday November 3rd (phase4.md in your individual contribution repos).