CS514 Fall 2000: Homework 2. Due 9/19.

This homework is intended to get you thinking about the project and to motivate you to do some preliminary planning. Accordingly, please write up and hand in a one-page report on your plans. Since it is expected that you will do the project as a group (please consult Professor if you wish to do the project by yourself), you will have to form a group and come up with this report cooperatively.

Please make sure the members of your group are clearly identified, including giving e-mail addresses and Cornell net-ids! Also note if any group members intend to use the project to satisfy the MEng project requirement.

The report should at least explain the following areas:

1. Which of the problems you have decided to work on: the E-Speak stock trading system, or the WebLogic online store, or another, different problem, providing you have prior approval.

2. How big your group is, and how you intend to divide tasks among participants in the group.

3. A fairly high-level overview of what the project will accomplish. This should include a description of the intended features, and some mention of the reliability, scalability and security characteristics which you seek to achieve. While you should try not to be over-ambitious, bear in mind that you are expected to aim to achieve enough to make good use of the time you have and justify the number of people working on the project!

4. A timeline of the goals you expect to have accomplished, with particular emphasis on what accomplishments are anticipated a month from now, seven weeks from now, and by the end of the semester (in other words, once every three weeks after this homework is due). At each of these milestones, you will hand in another report for homework explaining the progress you have made with reference to this timeline.

The purpose of this homework is to get you to start working on the project as soon as possible! The report you hand in will be returned with comments.

Though it is intended that you should figure out how to use the software tools available to you on your own, Ben Atkin, the TA for the course, will be happy to discuss problems you might encounter, especially those which involve design issues and reliability characteristics. He has office hours on Tuesday, 11-12, Wednesday and Friday, 2:30-3:00, and can be contacted by e-mail outside those times.