What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?
Our most significant risk at the moment is falling behind on the initial project setup. Having the camera stand functional is essential to our plan of having multiple rounds of development and testing. We recently received a message from Professor Mukherjee suggesting some changes to our camera order, so our order has not been finalized.
Our parts should arrive a week after our original plans, but right now we still feel confident in our ability to finish the setup phase on schedule. We gave conservative time estimates on the setup tasks (almost 2 weeks), and have extra setup slack. With that being said, we must finalize the order update ASAP and be extremely diligent over the next few weeks.
Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?
We have decided to change the camera from 12MP to 8MP. This reduction will not significantly impact any of our software plans. We are not able to produce a professional quality camera system within our budget, and this choice will allow us to still complete a proof of concept while saving some of our budget for an emergency.
Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.
Our schedule will be slightly modified by this setback. We will finish the initial algorithm design while the parts are shipping, and push the setup tasks into the designated setup slack.