• Finish Brooks. You can skim the last part of the book, reading closely only the parts that seem most interesting and relevant. But do think about No Silver Bullet and his reflections on that twenty five years later.

• Write a few paragraphs responding to each of the five possible projects we have heard about:
  • TREAT (Marc Welch)
  • Third Ear
  • unix alert management (Rick Martin)
  • MGX Professor Brian White)
  • MMIX (Swami Iyer)

  Base each response on the assumption that that is the project you will work on. In class we will decide (collectively) which four of these we will do. Be prepared to contribute to that discussion! In particular, be prepared to express an opinion on each of the following questions for each project.

  • Is the project feasible? Is there some reasonable subset of the scope that we think we can actually do in the time allotted? (yes, maybe, no)

  • Would this project be fun/interesting to work on? (yes, maybe, no)

  • Would the product be used after we finished it? (yes, maybe, no)

  • How difficult is the project? (hard, OK, easy)

  • Would you learn from this project? (yes, maybe, no)

  • Are you willing to work on this project? (yes, maybe, no)

  The next assignment will give you a chance to let me know your first choice among the final four projects.

• Sign up for a project selection interview (details to be announced).

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