Design Proposal
• A document prepared to (a) justify the need for the project,
(b) describe the engineering process to be taken, (c)
outline the expected results, and (c) estimate and justify
the cost.  A detailed plan of the project usually for the
purpose of justifying/requesting substantial investment of
time, effort, and resources
• A formal design proposal should include the following five
components:
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Objective (why?)
Background/Introduction (who? Where?)
Methodology (how? When?)
Expected results (what?)
Costs (how much?)
Reference: Engineering by Design, by G. Voland, chapter 2.5
Proposal (cont.)
• Objective: A concrete statement describing what the
project is trying to achieve and why. The objective should
be written such that it can be assessed at the conclusion
of a project. A well-posed objective has been commonly
described to possess the following characteristics:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time
framed (SMART).
• Background: who will be served (clients, users), where
the products will be used (environment, special
conditions). Also include existing solutions, prior work
demonstrating a broad understanding of the project.
• Methodology: state how the project will be tackled with
detailed description of the engineering process to be
taken.
Proposal (cont.)
• Methodology (cont.): Tasks and responsible persons
should be identified. An important element will be a
detailed schedule for the expected completion of these
tasks. The most widely used schedule is the Gantt chart
(a graphical representation for easy reading). (read
Chapter 7 of textbook for more information)
– Terminology: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a grouped list
of tasks with an estimate of efforts and resources required to
complete the task.
(Critical Path Method) (CPM) is another useful tool to
indicate time schedule. It has the advantage to identify
more clearly tasks with different priorities for decision
making. Indication of sequential and/or parallel
relationship between tasks.
Proposal (cont.)
• Expected Results: expected outcomes and
what types of deliverables should be described.
Both risks and benefits involved should be
discussed.
• Costs: estimated how much will the project cost
(the bottom line of a business decision): money,
time, labor, materials, facilities, all other
economical factors.
Assignment 2, due Feb. 4 (Wednesday)
• Prepare a design proposal for the design project your
team chooses (a senior capstone project, or a class
project, or a project of interest)
• Your team has to turn in the description of the project
chosen by Jan 28 (no longer than one page).
• Include all five components discussed in your proposal.
Note: A description/discussion is needed for each of the
five sections indicating how do you implement these
concepts (perform a self-analysis in the appendix at the
end of your proposal). For example, specify why your
objective has satisfied the SMART characteristics. Your
grade will also be dependent on how thoroughly you
describe your tasks.