1. Background Research Group and Advisor Group’s overall research goals Technology to: –Build On –Integrate –Advance

2. Problem Statement What are you trying to achieve Who will benefit How does it build on previous technologies What specifically are you adding What are the “Long Poles in The Tent”

3. Project Plan and Process Task breakdown Timeline Resources required Dependencies on other projects Dependencies on group infrastructure What metrics are available for tracking progress

4. Risks What are the major sources of uncertainty What steps can you take early to reduce the uncertainty What things are most likely to screw up? What alternative courses of action can you follow if there is a screw up How will you detect problems in the plan

5. Success Criteria How can you tell that you are done What’s the “safe bottom” for the project –A set of things you’re fairly sure you can do that would be useful What’s the “risky top” –A set of things you might be able to get to that would knock their socks off What test cases are already available or can be created early on