Week 12 Session: Defending the commitment

Present the approach you committed to and have it attacked by people who committed to something else

17 May 2027

No new material. You have five minutes and no slides.

State what you committed to, what it cost, and what evidence closed the decision. Then state the requirement you chose for Assignment 3 and what it does to that commitment.

The room’s job is to attack the estimate, not the choice. Useful questions, in rough order of how often they land:

• what did you measure, and what did you assume?
• what would have to be true for the option you eliminated to win?
• when did you eliminate it, and would you eliminate it today?
• what does your approach cost somebody who has to maintain it?
• you say the change is expensive — expensive compared to what?

Everyone will have eliminated something on grounds that later turned out to be wrong, or right for the wrong reason. That is the expected result, not an embarrassment, and it is the part of Assignment 3 that carries the most marks. The students who do badly here are not the ones who were wrong. They are the ones who cannot say when they became wrong, or what evidence should have caught it.

Come with your log open. “I don’t remember why” is the only answer that costs you anything.