Project Team Assignment: Requirements Description
Due Thursday March 9, 6 PM

The goal of this assignment is to capture yur best present thinking
regarding the true requirements for your project.  We will use the
document as a part of a continuing conversation, so we will provide
you with feedback and it will help to shape our understand of your
project that will ultimately enable us to assign a grade at the end of
the semester.  But the report itself will not be graded -- it serves
its purpose if it communicates the present state of your thinking
clearly.

The project description should contain no more than 5 pages of
single-spaced text and embedded figures, but you may also include
appendices that you have on hand if they help to paint the picture
(don't create appendices just for this report!).  There is no required
format, and there are no limitations on what you can address (i.e.,
you can and should address more than just the points specifically
identified here).  But you should at least tell us the following:

1) Who? (who you are, who your client is, by name)

2) What? (what function this is supposed to perform, what factors such
   as users, data, systems and business rules must be accommodated)

3) How? (if anything about how you go about this is a client
   requirement rather than your choice - for example, perhaps you will
   need simulated data for testing if the real data is confidential)

4) What next? (if you are not done with requirements analysis)

The level of detail on those questions will vary -- almost all of the
report will be about the "what" question, and you should address the
subquestions we talked about in class to the extent they are
appropriate (e.g., appearance and behavior).  The key to remember is
that every project will have different types of things that are
important to the client, so you should not be bound to answering
questions from some preconceived checklist.

Note that this is focused on requirements, not design.  Sometimes is
it useful to sketch out a notional design to talk abotu requirements,
but that is neither required nor expected -- do it only if you think
it helps you tell your story.  That doesn't mean you should not be
designing at this point -- only that the design is not what you are
writing about here (there will be a prototype demo the following week
in class that will start to address that).

If you have questions about what belongs, please ask!  We'll reply to
the list where appropriate.