This assignment has four main goals. First, your contract should specify the deliverables that you guarantee to your client (i.e., the scope of your proposed work). Second, your contract should show how your team will use group resources, particularly time. Third, your contract should commit your team's members to a mutually acceptable level of effort and quality. Finally, your contract should define the criteria used by your team when evaluating your team's performance.

Your project contract represents a statement of work that will guide activity from February 1 through April 14. You should aim to spend about 80 person hours of effort per group member over that period. You will need to negotiate with your client about deliverables that can be achieved within your group's resource constraints. Also, refer to your Group process plan to ensure that you are not creating potential difficulties for team members. Expect to have at least one face-to-face meeting between your group and your client prior to writing the contract.

Your contract should include the following elements (with recommended page limits):

a) Title (.25 page) -- your project title, the names and affiliations of each team member, and the project client.
b) Abstract (.25 page) -- 150 words describing your project and the expected deliverables
c) Project description (2.5 pages) -- in this section you should describe the project objectives (i.e., What do you plan to do?); the issues your project addresses (i.e., Why is your project important?); previous work that your project builds upon (e.g., a history of earlier efforts); methods (e.g., if you plan to collect data on patrons of an information service or on users of an information system, how will this be done? How will you protect the privacy or your respondents?); and deliverables (e.g., What will your client have at the completion of your project? A report? A prototype? A case study?)
d) Project plan (1 page) -- in this section you should explain how team members will know what tasks to perform, when these tasks will be performed, and the form of feedback about the performance of these tasks (e.g., sometimes this can be done in the form of a project timeline showing expected deadlines, tasks, and task assignments)
e) Evaluation plan (1 page) -- in this section your team should specify criteria for assessing the quality and completeness of the team project. These criteria will provide a benchmark for your team, your client, and the course instructors to evaluate your team's performance.
f) Statement of support -- a clause, signed and dated by your client, indicating that your team has arranged the proposed work in cooperation with the client and that the client has approved the proposed work

Due: In class, Monday, February 15

Last modified by Tom Finholt 12/21/98