B20.2317 Class project

Index

Description
Content
Guidelines
Deliverables  
Grading

General description and goal

The purpose of the project is to give you the opportunity to relate the concepts that we learning in class with the marketplace and practice of Information Technology. Your task is to identify a specific company, product or technology (related to IT – software, hardware, network), which has not yet "crossed the chasm" into the mainstream but, in your opinion, is likely to play an important role in the near future (1-2 years).

Projects will be done in groups of 2-3 students. Each team will pick a company, product or technology and write a report explaining and championing both the technology (behind the product or the company) and the business potential.

What should be in the project?

Every project should provide both

·         Good explanation of the technology and the technological landscape of which it is a part.

·         Lucid evaluation of the business potential of the company/product/technology.

You have to both demonstrate that you understand what the technology is and how it works (and why it is innovative) and make a strong case as to why (business/social/other reasons) it is going to have an impact in the near term.

Guidelines for the class project

Here are some guidelines that should help you make project decisions.

This is an IT class: The product/company you choose should be relying substantially on an non-mainstream (or non-commoditized) information technology. Making the case for the importance of the technology is a requirement for the project report.

What's new: Companies with capitalization larger than $300million, or products with more than $20million in sales (at the time when the topic is chosen) do not qualify as project topics.

Information retrieval: It is your responsibility to track down information about your choice, both the business and the technology part of it.

The bigger it is, the bigger it'll become: The bigger the company or product you picked already is, the higher the bar for how important its role should be in the future (to make a compelling case).

Time horizon: We are looking for technologies that can make an impact in the next two years. It is important to substantiate that claim, especially for technologies that have not made it out of the lab yet.

Stealth fighters: We need to be able to verify your claims and check your sources. Please do not rely on non-publicly available information in your report.

Importance is more than profits: That's why you can select a technology instead of a company or a product. Also, if you think a company will have a lot of impact by "paving the road," but you don't think it will be the one to reap the benefits, you can argue that.

Name dropping: Do not rely too heavily on quotes to substantiate your claims - it'll adversely affect your grade.

Miscellany: In addition to the above, your project grade will take into account factors such as teamwork, overall effort, timeliness, answers to questions about the project, and project reports.

If you think your topic should be considered, despite not adhering to these guidelines, email me before the submission of your proposal.

 

Project deliverables

1. Group Formation: December 19

We will assign you to groups.

2. Proposals: January 7

Students must email their proposal (this should only be a page or less long).

It is permissible for 2 or more teams to make the same choice. Proposals that do not follow the guidelines will be rejected and the team(s) will be asked to submit a new proposal within 2 days.

3. Draft Reports: January 18

Preliminary analysis and argumentation. 2000 words or less.

4. Critiquing of reports: January 19-January 23

Provide substantive and constructive criticism of other teams' reports using Prometheus.

5. Project report: February 2

Each group must email a project report containing their analysis. Project reports should be 5000 words or less. The word limit is strict: going over it will adversely affect your grade. 

 

The project report will be graded on the completeness and the compellingness of the analysis, and other factors as mentioned above.