Phase 1: Project Assignment-- Due March 1^st, 11:59pm. No late submissions allowed.

In Phase 1 you will work alone (no collaboration of any form). The goal in Phase 1 is to provide a first draft of the design of your schema for the project.

In Phase 1, you are required to analyze the application (read through the project details webpage, visit the CS dept website, look at how banner does registration, and also use your own ideas and creativity), provide a design of the data. You should clarify ALL your questions about the application during Phase 1 -- i.e., you are allowed to meet the "client" during this phase. All questions should be directed to the instructor. Note that after Phase 1, you should ideally not "meet the client" to discuss the project – plan for this, but the instruction team will be around to clarify during Phase 2.

Start by reading through the document describing the project (I have provided far more detail than what you would typically get from a client!). Identify the data required and their domains, constraints, and functional dependencies. Next organize them into tables and figure out the normal forms. This is not as time consuming as it may seem – reading and understanding the project specifications will take more time than the rest of the steps.

Requirements for Phase 1: You should (a) provide an ER diagram describing your design, (2) show the tables in your scheme (their names and their attribute domains, as well as constraints -- (key, foreign key etc., functional dependencies and normal forms ), and (3) submit an informal report describing your design and whatever justifications you have for your design. You should consider the entire project (this could even help in you making decisions about your application) – during implementation you will be assigned to specific pieces of the project, but you should have an idea of the specifications of the entire system. Phase 1 is worth 20% of your Project grade.
During Phase 1 you should also start making notes/plans on the design of your application (do not write out the application code, but you should have a draft design of how you will implement your system).

You will at a later time (after you finish the technical design), also prepare a formal written report describing your system. This will be part of the formal writing requirements. The deadline for this written report will be middle of March.