Project: Proposal

Final Due Date: 2024-10-08 11:59PM

Gradescope
Submission: Submit your proposal using the gradescope link. You can go back and edit your submission until the due date!

This is an optional assignment but I strongly encourage you to propose a project. You’ll be spending a lot of time on the project this semester, and you’ll have a better time if you are working on an application that interests you!

The Project

We will spend the second half of the semester working on large-scale web applications in teams of 5-8 students. The primary requirements for the Project are technical (see the list below). There are relatively few constraints on the goal/content/purpose of the application. Think broadly!

Project technical requirements:

Your project should have non-trivial front-end functionality with a database on the back-end
The project should be based on Next.js
The project should make good use of React components
The project should consist of at least two separate pages
Your application must store some data in a database.

The scope is always hard to estimate. However, with 5-8 students over 6 weeks, your team’s total capacity should be over 300 person-hours. Scope your project with that capacity in mind. You can build a substantial application in 300+ hours (though we should acknowledge that the math is not a simple as adding up the number of hours each developer can contribute…)!

The Proposal

At this stage, we are looking for a collection of proposals. Consider this optional assignment a Request-for-Proposals (RFP). You are encouraged but not required to submit a proposal. We will vet the proposals for suitability and scope before sending them out to the class.

You proposal will contain the following information:

The title of the project
The names of the proposer(s) (can be multiple people)
The target users or other stakeholders
The main functionality of the application. Specifically, you should describe the major “epics”, i.e. the big coarse-grained user stories. This component should make up the bulk of your proposal.
The role the back end will play in supporting the application
What, if any, external resources, such as APIs, do you plan to incorporate

Incorporating an external API is not discouraged, as long as it is “self-serve”. For example, you can automatically obtain a Google Maps API key and the API has a free quota that is more than sufficient for a class project. In contrast, any API that requires “manual” approval by the provider will likely be a problem. You only have 6 weeks to complete the project, and so waiting 3 weeks for API approval is not practical.

FAQ

How long should the proposal be?

If you need some guidance, aim to write around 400 words. Slightly longer is OK!

Is the project “bound” by the proposal?

The proposal is not a contract. We expect the projects to evolve (often substantially). That said, your proposal needs to be specific enough (and “thought through” enough) that you and we can estimate the scope and your classmates have a good idea of that they would be signing up to do. A great proposal will provide a clear starting point for your first development iteration (“sprint”).

What kinds of projects are not a good fit?

A mostly “static” website, or a site that could be managed with an off-the-shelf Content Management System (CMS), e.g. WordPress or Drupal.
Native mobile applications.
Applications that rely on non-free frameworks or APIs, e.g. Salesforce, or APIs with lengthy approval processes.
Applications that handle sensitive data (e.g. health data protected by HIPAA or FERPA-protected student data).
Applications you plan on turning into a company in the future. The ownership of the code (and or IP) could be tricky.
Applications that rely on technologies/algorithms not covered in the class (this is not the moment to learn about machine learning or GIS, and even if you do know the technology or algorithm, it will be important that the rest of the group does as well). Check in with the instructors if you thinking about this type of project.

What kind of projects have been successful in the past?

There is no one phenotype for a successful project, your teamwork and development process is more important to the success of your project than the topic. React is most useful in highly interactive applications (think Google Maps) and so projects with more interactive UIs will take better advantage of its capabilities.

Some of the more successful projects have included:

A real-time, multi-player strategy game
A scheduler for club sports
A tool for real-time, in-class feedback about understanding level
An online meal ordering system
A tool for glitching images for research
A site for creating and sharing coding tutorials
A site for evaluating news stories for bias
An IMDB-style site for Middlebury films

Are there potential pitfalls I should watch out for?

A strange as it sounds, proposing a project that you as the proposer are too passionate about is a recurring pitfall. Remember this is team effort where everyone has equal responsibility and equal “say”. The proposer is not the product owner, or ultimate decider about the direction of the project. Differences between the proposer’s vision/goals and where the rest of the team wants to go has been a previous source of conflict.

Another potential pitfall is the all-or-nothing project. In keeping with our iterative/incremental approach, can you see a path that includes building new features onto a functioning core so that you can build a minimal viable product instead of something that is ambitious but ultimately non-functional.