Design Cycle: Plan

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Design Cycle: Plan

So far we have discussed the Design Cycle, and your next written project will be to document the plan(s) you will use to create your project. In the planning stage you may design/create several different options that all have the potential of ultimately leading to the desired solution. Here is where you need to make a choice as to what plan would probably work the best. Sometimes this decision can be a very easy objective decision based on the information you gathered during the Investigation phase, and other times it is purely intuitive...no real reason other than it 'just feels right.' The final comparison to the design specs is what will decide what the best plan is, but sometimes it is not economically feasible to make several proto-types. Regardless of what plan we choose to use in the creation of our product, we will ultimately determine its viability by comparing it to the design specifications. If the design specifications are not met, then you can either determine where in this plan things went wrong or just use another plan.

It should be apparent at this point what you will have to do for this assignment ...create some plans for your project/product/performance. You will do this by writing a paper, and creating a minimum of two heuristics. A brief explanation of the heuristics...you are to use the method you learned in Writing In the Mathematics Classroom Using Heuristics and Algorithms. One of the heuristics will be the actual heuristic that you used to complete your project. The second heuristic will be one that has the potential of producing the same outcome, only the steps used to acquire such are different. If the heuristic you used for your project is exceptionally long and if there is no simple way of attaining the desired outcome, then you may shorten the second heuristic...say 15 steps instead of 50.

Go here for directions

The paper you are to submit should:

Explain your Personal Project in the form of a problem to be solved. “What is asked?” Briefly explain the project problem to others.

Discuss how you plan to solve your problem. The problem is the completion of your Personal Project. What different designs have/did you create? Again, just give a brief explanation.

How will you insure that while creating your project that it continues to conform to the design specifications?

At this point you have collected a lot of information and presented it in the Investigation paper. Briefly state: “How will this information help me to successfully complete my project?”

Addressing all of the above questions should only take 2-4 paragraphs. Once you have written these, then you are to write your two heuristics. Each heuristic is to be on a separate page. When writing your paper you will use the block format and a serif font (Arial, Helvetica, etc.) The text will be single spaced. You are writing it this way so that you can export it to your Web site. All of your sources should be cited using the MLA format…this is the format that you have been using in all of your classes. You should also spell check and use good grammar.

You should submit: 1) cover page with the title of your project, your name, class and period, and the date. 2) A page that answers the above questions. 3) Two heuristics each of which is one a separate page. 4) A bibliography...you can use the one you used for the Investigation paper. Every page should have a heading with your name and period (use the Insert -> Header/Footnote option in Word or OpenOffice or Pages.)

Below is a refresher on the Plan phase of the Design Cycle. Remember, this is the only thing that you are concerned with right now.

Plan

Students design the product/solution.

Generate several feasible designs that meet the design specification

Evaluate the designs against the design specification

Select one design and justify its choice.

Students plan the product/solution.

Construct a plan to create the product/solution that has a series of logical steps (Learn how to write a heuristic/algorithm via Writing in Mathematics.)

Construct a plan to create the product/solution that makes effective use of resources and time

Evaluate the plan and justify any modifications to the design.

You will submit a paragraph, or numbered list that will tell me how you plan to create your project. I would suggest you state your Goal State: and then list all of the steps you need to perform to complete your project. This should not take you more than 20-30 minutes to complete. I will go over this with all classes before they will be expected to do it.

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