From: jud@Athena.MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9202282222.AA09189@ithake.MIT.EDU>
To: musedesign@Athena.MIT.EDU
Subject: Muse II Design Schedule
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 92 17:22:14 EST

	What follows is a draft schedule worked out by Jim and I
for Muse II design between now and early summer.  We request comments
by next Thursday, 3/5, so that we can revise the schedule if
necessary and then commit to it by early the following week.
Please let us know if the schedule appears too tight or lax,
and if there are parts of the design effort for which we have
not budgeted time.

	The bulk of April will be devoted to a review of emerging
standards and UNIX multimedia software.  If you know of standards
or software that you feel we should examine during this period,
please email us, with a brief reference if at all possible,
We will draw up a workplan for the evaluation in a couple of weeks.

						Jud

		*	*	*	*	*	*

Spring Design Schedule (2/92 - 6/92) for Muse II:

	This memo proposes a schedule for Muse design work through
the spring of 1992.  By 1 July, we need a solid functional specification
as well as a prelinary system design that can be circulated to consortium
members and other technical reviewers.  We will then use the months
June - August to respond to comments on the design and elaborate it in
more detail.  A second larger design document will be released about
1 September.

Path to Functional Specification:

	The starting point for the functional specification will
be research and resulting documents on

1) User interface and editing requirements (Evelyn),
2) Muse II market position, target audience, and competition (Lynne), and
3) Muse II portability, extensibility, and maintainability requirements
   (Toshi).

Feb 25:		Presentation of functional spec working documents by
		Evelyn, Lynne, and Toshi
Feb 27:		Discussion of same
Mar 12:		Preliminary functional specification circulated
Mar 19:		Comments on preliminary functional spec due
Mar 26:		Final functional spec released


Path to System Design Document:

	We plan to achieve a tentative consensus on global
system architecture at an early date and then split the design
team into a number of working groups for efficiency.  Each separate
working group will focus on a separate system module.  The
membership and responsibilites of these working groups will
inevitably overlap.  The number and focus of these working
groups will not be frozen until after the revised description
of the global system architecture is circulated on 7 April.
Changes (increases) in staffing will play an important role
in determining the scope of issues that can be considered.
At the moment we anticipate the following probable and possible
working groups and design modules:

Probable:
--------
Application Description Language(s)
Internal Class Hierarchy (as opposed to external object library
	accesible to users)
Media Access, Distribution, and Modification Model (possible media server)
Display and Presentation Model (possible display server)

Possible:
--------
Database Model(s) (possible general database server model)


System Design Schedule:
------ ------ --------
Mar 26-
 Apr 23:	Multimedia software and standards review.
Apr 20-24:	Possible design offsite retreat.
May 5:		Preliminary global system architecture
May 12:		Revised and (hopefully) stable global system architecture;
		official start of module design although work will have begun
		earlier.  Intergroup coordination meetings will occur
		as needed.
May 26:		Semiformal module design progress and coordination meeting.
Jun 9:		Preliminary module design documents circulated.
Jun 18:		Revised module design documents and revised functional
		spec due.
Jul 1:		Preliminary Design Document including revised functional
		specification and preliminary system design circulated
		for external review.