EC-15.2 Capstone I: Design, Plan and Feasibility

Work through these

• From proposal to a design that could actually be built

  Architecture, interfaces, component choices and calculations that show the design meets its requirements. The test is whether someone else could start building from what you have written.

  NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · Course

• A feasibility demonstration on the riskiest element

  Build the smallest thing that proves the frightening part works. Doing this in the first stage is what turns an unknown into either a solved problem or a change of plan while there is still time.

  NPTEL: Design Thinking, a Primer (IIT Madras) · Course

• The bill of materials, with lead times and alternatives

  Every part, its cost, where it comes from and how long it takes to arrive. A component with an eight-week lead time discovered in the second stage has ended more projects than any technical difficulty.

  NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · Course

• A schedule with slack where it is needed

  Tasks, dependencies and the ones that cannot start until something else finishes. Putting the slack next to the uncertain tasks rather than at the end is what makes a schedule survive contact with reality.

  NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · Course

• Safety, ethics and approvals, considered now

  Mains voltages, radio transmission, anything involving people or their data, and anything that could injure someone. Whatever permission is needed takes time, and the first stage is when to find out.

  NPTEL: Ethics in Engineering Practice (IIT Kharagpur) · Course

• The first-stage review, and what it should conclude

  Either the project is feasible as planned, or it needs a stated change, or it should be replaced. A review that concludes only that progress has been made has not done its job.

  NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · Course