Monitoring and evaluating the status of engineering design projects has traditionally been part art and part science. Weekly and monthly status reports, Gantt charts, design reviews, time logs, demonstrations, and presentations are often utilized to gain visibility of the progress on projects. Even with all these tools, it is often difficult to gain a clear, definitive view of the status of a given project. In recent years, project dashboards and scorecards have been added to the list of tools

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... mployed in industry to give visibility of project status to all stakeholders. These tools seek to concisely display key metrics that give a clear view of project status. In engineering project courses, students and faculty both are often challenged to assess the status and progress of the project. The traditional inputs of submitted homework, quizzes, and examinations are often not applicable. Assessment of progress tends to be more subjective, based on observations and conclusions drawn from reading status reports and team presentations. This paper describes the development and application of project scorecards to traditional classroom senior design projects to help assess status and progress. During 2007-2008 academic year, a weekly scorecard was developed and utilized by 20 senior design project teams in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The tool was designed to aid both the design teams and the faculty in honestly and clearly assessing weekly progress on design projects. The results of the study are discussed including both the perceived benefits and drawbacks.