Teamwork
Software engineering is a team activity, and the success of your project will depend on your dedication towards teamwork. There will be materials and activities that aim to help you and your teammates gel as a team and to monitor the health of the team. Moreover, a significant portion of your course grade will depend on your attendance at team meetings and contributing your fair share of the work on your team’s deliverables.
Team Formation
Teams will be formed in the first week of class! See Week 01 ToDo.
Team Leadership
The role of team leader will rotate among the members of your team every two weeks, starting Tuesday, January 20. Depending on your team size, some lucky member(s) might get to serve as team leader more than once. During each leadership period, the current leader negotiates with each member (including themself) their fair share of project-related tasks for the period, taking into account the members’ other commitments as well as the team’s obligations. The leader also organizes and runs the team meetings.
At the end of each leadership period, the departing project leader submits a peer evaluation, evaluating each member (including themself) with respect to how well they fulfilled their assigned tasks, the quality of their work, their reliability, their interactions with the rest of the team, etc. Peer evaluations are due at 8:59PM ET on the following dates:
| Leadership Period | Due Date |
|---|---|
| Jan 13 - Jan 26 | Jan 29 |
| Jan 27 - Feb 9 | Feb 12 |
| Feb 10 - Mar 2 | Mar 5 |
| Mar 3 - Mar 16 | Mar 19 |
| Mar 17 - Mar 30 | Apr 2 |
| Mar 31 - Apr 6 | Apr 9 |
Team Contract and Team Health Surveys
Teams will negotiate a team contract at the start of the term that outlines their joint goals for the course project, expectations of team members, rules for decision making and conflict resolution, and so on. Team Health Surveys are conducted twice a term as a means of identifying team weaknesses and addressing them before they become serious problems. Both the contract and the surveys are marked as either complete (1) or incomplete (0).
Team Meetings
Teams are required to meet in-person during class time on Tuesdays. The scheduled classrooms will also be available for team meetings on Thursdays and (most) Fridays.
During team meetings, your team will work through that week’s activities and deliverables. The lecture videos for the week will be released on the previous Friday, and you are expected to watch each week’s videos in advance of your team’s meeting.
The instructor and your project TA will drop in on your meetings every week to provide real-time feedback on your work in progress and to answer questions. Team meeting marks are based on attendance. Students can to miss up to two team meetings over the course of the term without penalty (but must give suitable advance notice to their team).
Peer Evaluations
Each student must take a turn at serving as the Team Leader of their team for two weeks and summarizing teammates’ contributions to the team during that time period. Peer evaluation exercises give you practice at providing objective evaluations of possibly stressful team dynamics. They also serve as an early-warning system of team behaviours that need to be addressed before they become serious problems. Peer evaluations are described in greater detail here. Peer evaluation marks are based on timeliness, completeness, and the quality of the write-up.
Feedback to Buddy Teams
Three times during the term, teams will participate in larger-group activities with buddy teams or will seek preliminary feedback on their work from other teams. In each case, your team will be expected to interact with 1-2 other teams in the class. You (individually) must participate in these activities in order to receive the Feedback to Buddy Team marks. Feedback marks are based on participation and the reported quality and helpfulness of the feedback provided.