Goals Document

CS 390 (CAP), Interim 2022

The goals document for your project is an (up to) one-page summary of your team's objectives, as a team deliverable. It should identify priorities and general anticipated sequencing for accomplishing those objectives.

• The purposes of the goals document are to identify and clarify project objectives, to establish a shared understanding of those objectives among team members, and to communicate the goals to the project mentor and perhaps others (such as future researchers who work on your project).

• The goals document should be updated throughout the course as project objectives evolve, based on the team's further thinking and on their actual experience with their project work.

Here are suggested guidelines for the goals document. Your team may adapt these recommendations as appropriate for this project, as long as your team's document addresses the necessary information (see boldface items above).

• Include basic identifying information, such as project name, team name, team members, and date

• Start with a brief-paragraph overview of the project's goals

  • This communicates project objectives at a high level

• Group your objectives into sections according to general timeframe for accomplishment, such as

  1. Essential and (likely) achievable goals for this term

  2. Additional goals that may be adopted and achieved this term

  3. Long-term goals that are unlikely to be achieved this term, but could interest future teams and/or inform this term's work

  This expresses the high-level sequencing of your project's work. Feel free to choose titles for these sections as desired, whether the SD-like "Baseline"/"Extra Features"/"Long-term" or whatever makes sense to you.

• Make a bulleted list of summary items in each section, listing items generally in order of priority and/or sequencing.

  • The items should encapsulate an identifiable objective, with only enough detail to make the goal unambiguous.

    • This itemized-list approach aims to address the (one-page) summary, identify/clarify, shared understanding, and communication needs for the goals document, as well as indicating priorities and lower-level sequencing.

• Later versions of goals document

  • Indicate who is leading goals that are in progress. (Multiple leaders if appropriate)

  • Indicate any progress (e.g., accomplished now, expected this term, will attempt this term, will start this term)