Descriptive Title
George Burdell
Jane Doe
John Doe
Clark Kent
Bruce Wayne
[names are alphabetical order, since all members are equal rank]
ECE 2031, Digital Design Lab
Section L99
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Submitted
January 1, 1970
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Executive Summary
This section should be one paragraph (not multiple), approximately ½ page in length. The Executive Summary summarizes the entire document – it clearly and explicitly states what type of document this is (design report, comparison report, feasibility study, technical review, etc.) and explains what is being designed, reviewed, proposed, or compared. A reader should know exactly what you plan to do and how you plan to do it, and the significance of the work after reading your ES. You’re not writing a mystery novel. Tell the reader up front, in one paragraph, what this document is about and why it is worth their time to read.
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Descriptive Title (same as cover page)
Introduction
The document starts here in the introduction. It is completely acceptable to repeat some of what you wrote in the ES here in the introduction, because the introduction should not depend on having read the ES. This is the first time the reader is hearing what type of document this is, what is being designed or proposed, and how the design was approached. Begin with a general but brief introduction of the topic, and then move into a discussion of more specific areas of interest. The Introduction should include explicit statements such as “This report examines…” or “This document proposes….”
Technical Approach
Explain the process and steps you will take to solve the problem. Organize this section using descriptive subheadings so that the reader can easily find the components of the design. Use figures, bullets, enumerated lists, or tables to organize information (you don’t always have to write a paragraph!).
Descriptive Subheading
An example of a subsection might be something like “Correcting for Heading Drift” or “Program Flow During Application Demonstration”. Consider your audience and their level of technical expertise to decide what level of detail to include – they are very familiar with the robot, SCOMP, odometry, etc., but not the additions that you have made.
Descriptive Subheading
More information.
Management Plan
The bulk of the management plan will be organized in a Gantt chart, which can be included as an appendix and referred to in this section (“Appendix A contains a Gantt Chart showing…”). However, also give the reader an overview of major tasks and milestones to give the Gantt chart some context.
Contingency Plan
This is also where you will include your contingency plan, which accounts specifically for how you will handle problems that may arise. At the very least, it would say something like “If X turns out to not be feasible because of Y, then it will not be implemented.” Better, would be something like “… then Z will be used instead because code already exists for it and it would require only minor effort to integrate with the design.”
There will not (and should not) be a contingency plan for everything you propose; you should not plan an entire project with the assumption that it all might fail. Conversely, if you are certain that you can accomplish everything in your proposal, you should consider if there is anything more advanced that you can attempt.
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Appendix (You don’t need this page - see next page for an example coversheet)
Include material that is needed to understand your report but is too lengthy to incorporate into the body of the document. Include a separate cover page for each Appendix and group materials according to “like kind” within each Appendix. For example, Appendix A could contain oscilloscope screen captures, Appendix B could contain one set of VHDL code, Appendix C could contain data sheet printouts, and so forth.
You don’t need to paginate the Appendices since it may be difficult to add page numbers to printouts, worksheets, and other such materials. However, do label figures and tables that you generated and could not fit in the body of the report. For instance, each of your waveforms would need to be labeled and numbered “Figure 1. So-and-so simulation waveform of XYZ circuit.” This is important so that in the body of the report when you refer to Figure 3 in Appendix B, the reader knows exactly where to find it and what to look at.
Appendix A: Simulation Waveforms
Note: Appendix cover sheets do not need to have page numbers.