These notes are based on experience with student run teams. I have seen them succeed and have seen them struggle. Remember, you are not trying to become best friends with your teammates. You are trying to get something done!
Norms
- Your first meeting is very important.
- Each member honestly say what your personal goals are for this course:
- This course is my most important, I really care and will do anything to be successful
- Or, I have a heavy courseload, I will do what I can but I have to balance
- Or, I am perfectly happy with a “B”, don’t expect intensity from me.
- If everyone knows each other’s perspective this will set expectations
- Each member of the team is responsible for their own work and for the welbeing of the team
- Think about how you will make decisions:
- Democratic vote
- Decide or chose a leader to have final say
- Divide up the domain (front end/back end/ etc) and assign it to people.
Technical
- Create a github repository for all your code from the very start
- Create a Trello or PivotalTracker project to keep track of tasks and assignments
- Create a Google Drive for documents (specs etc.)
- Partition the work as much as you can to allow each person a bit of independence
Conflict
- Working in teams can suddenly become CHALLENGING
- There is a non-zero probability that you will not get along with someone in your team
- Be ready for this and take it in stride. “Whoops, there it is!”
- You are not married, you are just working on this project, now
- Don’t try to resolve the conflict in email, it never works!
- One of the big challenges is to find time to meet, so try to be flexible.