System Design Report¶
The System Design Report is a written report describing your ideas for the project at the system level. This report provides an opportunity to exhibit your skills in formal technical writing. This system level report should be prepared in cooperation with all members of the project team.
- The template for preparing the System Design Report: Templates and Forms
- Rubrics for evaluation of your System Design Report: Tasks and Due Dates
Instructions for preparing the System Design Report¶
Instructions to complete each section of the report is given below:
- Cover Page - Complete it with your Project title, Client name, month/year of submission, Team Members name with major, Project Engineer name and Chief Engineer name with discipline.
- Table of Contents - Update the table after you have completed the table. You can use the auto update field feature in word for this. Make sure you update the entire table so that headings and page numbers are updated.
- List of Figures / List of Tables - Name all Figures and Tables in the format given in the template. And put in the list in this section with the page numbers. Be sure to update before you submit the document.
- Glossary - Define all the abbreviations, acronyms, and terms required to interpret your final report properly, keeping in mind that many abbreviations have more than one commonly-used meaning, e.g. ATM – Asynchronous Transfer Mode or Automated Teller Machine. For any unfamiliar abbreviation, write the full name followed by the abbreviation in parentheses the first time it is mentioned in the report. Unfamiliar terms might benefit from one or two short examples as clarification. Please alphabetize this list for easy searching.
- Section 1 Introduction - Introduce your project in terms of background information and motivation/ justification for conducting this project. You can use the information in your initial project description and any other project work.
- Section 2 Project Overview - This gives the technical overview of your project which includes your work and how it addresses the customer's needs.
- 2.1 - Project Statement
- 2.2 - Project Objectives (Long Term) - This is for the 1-5 years AFTER your semester. Include specific benefits to client
- 2.3 - Semester Objectives / Deliverables (Short Term) - Limit this to this current semester.
- Section 3 Proposed System Design
- 3.1 - System Overview - This gives a technical overview of the system you are designing and implementing.
- 3.2 - System Architecture Diagram(s) - Include overall system block diagram(s).
- 3.3 - Team (Subsystem Lead Assignments) - Based on and referring to your block diagram(s), this section must explain the technical role of each team member. It is required that each person lead and have ownership for a technical area that represents and equal share of the team's workload.
- Section 4 System Evaluation Plan - Create a table with a row for each subsystem. For each subsystem, show your high level plan as to how you will evaluate it's performance against the project needs and requirements. In the text outside this table, be sure to explain the information in the table. You are likely to update this table again before semester's end as you further develop the subsystems.
- Section 5 Technical Accomplishments - In this section, the team can indicate what technical accomplishments have been made by this point in the semester. This may include analyses, modeling, or demonstrations.
- References - Use IEEE style referencing with numbered citation in the text.
Tips¶
- Make your objectives S.M.A.R.T.
- Consult Standards page to see what might/should apply to your project.