This chapter covers:
- Creating a project hypothesis
- Generating an estimate for effort and time
- Doing the paperwork to get the project underway
- Completing your pre-sales checklist
In chapter 2, we covered the first half of the pre-project work. First, you set up the tools and infrastructure required to do the necessary work. Then, you undertook some tasks to gather the requirements for the project, emphasizing on the ML-specific issues that are the focus of the project. In particular, you looked at the data set for the project and found out how hard or easy it will be for the team to get it. You also documented the data-specific issues of security and privacy and understand what the key ethical and social concerns are for this project.
These requirements now need to be synthesized into a statement of what is going to happen, what the problems are with that intent, and how much it’s going to cost. Once this is in hand, your organization and the client’s business can make a rational decision about whether to plunge forward with the project. This is the work that we will cover in this chapter.
3.1 Build a project hypothesis
The project hypothesis states the purpose of the project and the major challenges to overcome. Continuing from the pre-sales backlog in chapter 2, let’s look at ticket PS10. This is the work that needs to be done to understand the problem that is at the core of the project.