[FTC]: Engineering Notebook - PR and Electronic

[gblake]

Originally Posted by team F.T.C 4240

I'd have to disagree with that, this past year we put together a "business plan" of how we will get money for the team. It consists of how we do fundraising, sponsorship's, ect. We have budget like real engineers do, which shows that we have a plan and know how much fundraising we need to do for the robot, competition, ect. It isn't smart to start a project and run out on money half way though, and I think its good to show that in the "Engineering Notebook". Last year was the first year we did that, and doing it gives an idea of what you'l need to do when starting any project that requires money. This process in my mind gives good experience, and I think every team should do it.

Hope that helped ~Derrick

Ambrose Lewis used to remind me that budgets and schedules are work that is about developing software, but isn't developing software. He used the word "about" in the sense that those topics have something to do with developing software in a business setting, not in the sense that they are "almost" or "approximately" developing software.

Ambrose developed software and let other people take care of the things that were "about" developing software.

My suggestion is recording business plans and decisions in in one location/medium, and recording engineering (applied math & physics) in a different location/medium. There is no prohibition on submiting multiple notebooks/records in a stack held together by a big rubber band if you care to (and written evidence is useful for confirming that a team has earned an Inspire award.)

Remember that people whose core skill set is (or began as) engineering do (and get paid for) many things (giving tours, for example) but that doesn't make everything they do "Engineering".

Blake