EC-15.3 Capstone II: Build, Test and Evidence
You can build and integrate the design incrementally, test against the plan written in the first stage, record evidence as you go, manage the point at which scope must be cut, and arrive at the deadline with a working demonstrable result.
Before:OE1-1. Technical Writing SkillsOE1-4. Principles of Entrepreneurship and StartupsEC-14. Engineering Design and System Integration
The second stage is where the discipline of the design module is either applied or regretted. The most valuable thing in this topic is the section on cutting scope, because every real project reaches that point and students are rarely told that doing it deliberately is normal engineering rather than a failure.
Work through these
Building and integrating in the planned order
Subsystem by subsystem, tested as each arrives, with the riskiest first. The order chosen in the first stage exists to keep faults separable, and abandoning it under pressure is what makes the last fortnight chaotic.
NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · CourseTesting against the verification plan, not against hope
Each requirement has a test and each test has a result. Running them as the build progresses spreads the work and stops the discovery of a fundamental failure in the last week.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseRecording evidence while it is in front of you
Captures, measurements, photographs and the settings that produced them, collected as the work happens. Reconstructing evidence afterwards costs more time than collecting it and produces something weaker.
NPTEL: Measurement and Instrumentation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseVersion control for everything, not only code
Schematics, board files, firmware, test scripts and the report. Being able to return to last week's working state is worth more in the final month than any other single practice.
NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · CourseCutting scope deliberately, and when to decide
Decide what the minimum demonstrable result is, and the date by which anything not started must be dropped. A planned reduction demonstrated fully beats an ambitious plan demonstrated partly.
NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · CourseThe last fortnight, spent on the demonstration
Reserve the final two weeks for integration, the report and rehearsal rather than for new work. Projects that are still adding features in the last week are the ones that demonstrate badly.
NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · Course
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