A chip project is a sequence of freezes: each milestone locks something that later stages may use but never change. This topic walks that sequence from the integrator's chair, names what is frozen when, and prices the bugs that slip through each gate. It covers the flow only; the implementation detail inside each box belongs to its owner course, linked throughout.
Lesson | After it you can... |
|---|---|
Name every milestone gate, its deliverables, and what freezes at each. | |
Price a late bug and aim every check at the cheapest catching stage. | |
Run the gate reviews and prove every consumer derives from the frozen tables. |
Suggested order: top to bottom. Milestones first, because cost and reviews only make sense against gates; then the cost curve, which justifies the reviews; then the reviews themselves. Readers who know project flow can start at the second lesson.
A date slips and recovers; a freeze broken silently corrupts every consumer built on it. The integrator's schedule is a list of things that must stop changing, not a list of things that must start.