ResearchPlanning.form
Project Name: Name
Participants: Person name (fraction of time), Person name ( fraction of time)
Related Projects: Names
Ulimate Goal (one)
Ulimate Goal or Unifying Theme: Projects go through a sequence of goals, and may have several at the same time. They may also produce useful information and artifacts which were not foreseen. Forget about those here. Describe the shore you are steering towards.
Justification: Expected value to other people in Imaging, other people in CSL, other people in Xerox, other people in the world. Any evidence that you will be able to reach the shore, that few people (in Imaging, in CSL, in Xerox, in the world) have been there before. Any evidence that the shore is worth reaching. Evidence that, whether or not you reach the goal, something useful is likely to come of the journey.
Shorter Term Goals (many, numbered)
1. Goal: A goal is a capability which you wish to achieve, or an understanding which you wish to gain. Goals can be quantitative — a 100 MBit ethernet — but are usually qualitative — an ability to solve 2nd order equations faster, an ability to render 2 ý D equations more reliably, or on a large number of devices.
1. Justification: Some goals are just steps on the way to the ultimate goal and there is little more that you can same about them. Some goals can be given the same sort of justification as the ultimate goal. For instance, code produced, equations derived, rules-of-thumb discovered, concepts articulated, and so on may be useful to other people.
1. Results: Has this goal been achieved? What came out of it? Also enter it as a milestone.
2. Goal: Most projects will have more than one goal.
2. Justification: Justification for another goal.
2. Results: Results for another goal.
Techniques (many, numbered)
By articulating goals, you say what you are going to export. It is also interesting to say what you are going to import. You might be building all of your own techniques, you might be importing code, algorithms, concepts, or hardware from people in your project, in Imaging, in CSL, at Xerox, or in the research community.
1. Technique: Examples: the Combiner, the Imager, object oriented programming, hashing, the connection machine
2. Technique: Examples: the Combiner, the Imager, object oriented programming, hashing, the connection machine
Hypotheses (many)
Much of our research boils down to demonstrating that a certain goal or goals can be achieved, by bringing certain techniques to bear. These hypotheses can be described just by noting the techniques and goals in question, and explaining how the goals will be demonstrated. Other hypotheses may relate to justifying the goals, or to justifying the use of certain techniques.
Hypothesis:
Related Goals: Names or numbers of goals
Related Techniques: Names or numbers of techniques
Tests: What experiment will be used to test the hypothesis? Will a system be tested by releasing it? Will a benchmark illustration be printed to see how fast, accurately it can be rendered? Will someone else be allowed to import an artifact and comment on its utility?
Test Steps: How much must be implemented in order that the hypothesis may be tested?
Expected Results: The expected outcome of the test. This outcome is usually consistent with the hypothesis
Milestones (many)
A milestone is either a document completed, a talk given, or a piece of code demonstrated. A project might produce a document listing its plan, circulate this document for comments, make a revised document, implement some of the concepts, write up an analysis of the results, write up some algorithms devised along the way, write up the results of an experiment, give a talk on a new concept. Each of these things is a milestone. You can do too much of this. You can do too little.
References and Other Influences (many)
A list of documents which describe the foundation on which you build. Who else has done similar work? Which previous projects have influenced this one?
Article: Author, Title. Publisher, Date, Volume, Pages, etc.
Project: Name of Project, where it was done, date
Completed Milestones
Type: Planning Document, Description of a new technique, Demonstration of code, Results of Experiment
Date: Approximate time when the milestone was reached
References: Filename(s) where the milestone is documented
Anticipated Milestones
Type: Planning Document, Description of a new technique, Demonstration of code, Results of Experiment
Date: Approximate time when the milestone is anticipated to be reached