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Board of Directors Review (BDR)

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Board of Directors Review Goal

The Engineering Team has secured a meeting with the Board of Directors to discuss and review the team's work. The Board is comprised of Faculty members and Design Lab staff. Engineers from other Capstone teams will also join in reviews. Design reviews are an opportunity to share information and get feedback as part of an open and honest dialog with reviewers. This meeting will decide whether your project should proceed forward to the next stage in the development process. The meeting will be conducted in person and using the SAME SLIDE DECK as presented to Client with minor updates as noted below during Client Meeting #1.

Logisitics

There will be three shifts during class time, with each shift presenting the same material to different reviewers. Every student must present at least once. Create three sub-teams, and each sub-team will have 25 minutes to describe your project and project plan. Teams should plan on presenting for 15 minutes, allowing for up to 10 minutes for Q&A. Reviewers typically ask questions DURING the flow of the presentation. This may make presenters uncomfortable but is much better to transmit information. If the audience is confused, that can be cleared up immediately rather than continuing without understanding, i.e., real time feedback. This also prevents useful questions or suggestions from being forgotten before the end of the presentation time.

Each sub-team will cover the entire project, so it is best to divide your team into balanced sub-teams. You will be evaluated as individuals on communication skills, including but not limited to: oral presentation, using a poster, and answering questions.

Choose one team member for each shift to run the presentation from their computer (or use a single computer for all three shifts). On the presentation computer(s), download both the PPT file and the Needs and Requirements Workbook and use desktop versions of PowerPoint and Excel. It is recommended that teams practice switching between files on the monitors prior to the Review.

Each sub-team should also have a designated Note Taker for each shift. This person will not present material or answer questions but document comments and suggestions the audience may offer. These notes should be uploaded to the EDN and shared with the full team after class. If necessary, a student(s) can repeat in this role. However, (again) each team member MUST present during at least one shift.

Team members who do not present the poster during each shift will attend other presentations by a different capstone team.

Section 1 & 3 Activity Section 2 & 4 Activity
10:00 Beginning of class 12:00 Beginning of class
10:05 Start the first sub-team's design review 12:05 Start the first sub-team's design review
10:30 Time for reviewers to document evaluation 12:30 Time for reviewers to document evaluation
10:40 Start the second sub-team's design review 12:40 Start the second sub-team's design review
11:05 Time for reviewers to document evaluation 13:05 Time for reviewers to document evaluation
11:15 Start the third sub-team's design review 13:15 Start the third sub-team's design review
11:40 Time for reviewers to document evaluation 13:40 Time for reviewers to document evaluation

Dress Code for Presenters

The standard for the preliminary design review is Business casual. For more information, see presentation attire guidelines.docx

Template Instructions

  • DO NOT create a new slide deck. Begin with the slide deck you utilized for Client Meeting #1.
  • Content for this presentation is largely the same as what was shown to Client a few weeks ago.
  • Team needs to update the existing PPT;
    • Copy key Needs & Reqs directly into PPT from spreadsheet. See below for more details.
    • Add the work done since Client meeting.
    • Address feedback received during Client Meeting #1.

Title (slide 1)

  • NO CHANGE

Typical Agenda (slide 2)

  • Project Overview (includes stakeholders, client motivation, purpose, past work/project history, semester objectives)
  • Update from Client REMOVE this bullet
  • Current Needs and Requirements (N&R) NEW SLIDE, see instructions below
    • One summary slide
  • Dashboard (Project Timeline)
  • Technical Approach
  • Accomplishments
  • Demonstrations
  • Answers / Decisions Needed from Client REMOVE this bullet
  • Next Steps and Future Work
    • Summary of work to be accomplished between now and end of semester
  • Schedule or confirm date/time for the next meeting time REMOVE this bullet

Project Overview (slide 3)

  • Update with any new information

Update from Client (slide 4)

  • REMOVE this slide

Current Needs and Requirements

  • Instead of opening the N&R workbook and toggling between the PPT and workbook, prepare a new slide for Key Needs and Requirements. The slide should include, from your workbook and as identified by the team:
    • The two most important Client Needs and their associated Requirements
    • The most challenging Client Need and its associated Requirements

Project Status (slide 6)

  • Update as necessary
  • Fill out table with all Deliverables taken from Project Plan
  • Note that some reviewers may prefer to review the timeline at the end of the presentation. As such, teams may be asked to quickly skim this slide at the beginning and return to it at the end of the presentation

example Project Dashboard

  • ‘Deliverables’ are the same items listed in your Project Plan. These are also your EDN milestones
  • Keep the Legend!
    • Update colors as appropriate to indicate status of each item

Technical Approach (slide 7)

  • Update as necessary
  • Explain the technical approach the team will utilize to accomplish the semester objectives

Accomplishments (slide 8)

  • Update as necessary
  • Address your technical progress / subsystems / accomplishments.
  • Provide context, i.e., overall system block diagram(s), architecture, etc.
  • Focus on results / accomplishments vs. “diary mode”
  • Show rather than tell, i.e., pictures/graphs over words
  • OK to use multiple slides for this section

Demonstrations (slide 9)

  • Update as necessary
  • Demonstrations include any “show and tell” opportunities!

Answers / Decisions Needed from client (slide 10)

  • REMOVE this slide

Next Steps and Plan (slide 11)

  • Summary of work to be accomplished between now and the end of the semester