Student Resources > CMPT 275 > Team Information

Selection of Project teams

During the first lecture all students will be asked to form into groups of nine students. Before Wednesday May 13 at 8 PM each group should send an email to the instructor (jregan@sfu.ca) containing the full names (as the names appear in SFU registration system) and student numbers of all members of the group. (All students in the group must be registered not on the waiting list). As the instructor receives emails with full groups of nine registered students she will authorize those groups by email and set those groups up in coursesys.
Please note that if there are less than nine members in your group the instructor will assign additional members to your group. In rare cases it may be necessary to break up smaller groups and assign the members to other groups. After 8 PM May 13 the instructor will assign students who are not yet part of groups to existing incomplete groups, or will create additional groups for them as needed. Before 8:30 AM Thursday May 14 the instructor will announce the composition of ALL groups for the course by Email and in CourseSys. Before 5PM Thursday May 14 each group should discuss which of the available times for out of class meetings are practical for all members of the group. Each group should send an email to the instructor (jregan@sfu.ca) containing the answers to the following questions (You may include this information in your first email if you have a group of 9 students);

• What are the full names of each of the members of your group? .
• Which of the available times for out of class meetings, in order of preference, are possible for your group? (provide at least 4 ordered choices for the UAT, Requirements Gathering meeting, Requirements Review meetings, and at least 4 ordered choices for the iteration review meetings). If there are less than 4 time slots that all of your team members can attend please indicate how many members cannot attend for each time slot where there is an scheduling issue
• When selecting times please respect your team mates and the instructor. If you can attend at a particular time but you prefer not to do not indicate that you cannot attend, simply place the selection lower on your preference list

Based on the information in the emails received from each group the instructor will schedule out of class meetings for each group . The schedule of meeting times will be posted on the class website at or before 3:30PM Friday May 15.

Each team will be given 15 minutes for a team meeting in class Tuesday May 19. The agenda for this team meeting can be found at Meeting One Agenda. During this team meeting you will schedule your regular team meetings, choose a name for your group, plan your methods of regular communication for the term, and decide each member's roles for the term.

Preventing and Resolving Team Conflicts

The best way to prevent conflict is to insure that you have open communication channels between all group members. However, sometimes those channels fail and conflicts arise that cannot be resolved by the parties involved. The process below will help you deal with such disputes.

Keep records of the progress of the project at each step. Include all of the following information

• Who was assigned which tasks
• Which tasks were completed on time
• What unexpected difficulties arose in which tasks
• How such difficulties were addressed

These items should be recorded in the minutes of your regular team meetings. Keeping a record of these items will provide every member of the team with a better idea of what every other member of the team is doing. This improves communication and helps prevent conflicts. Be sure to check all meeting minutes into your SVN repository. Remember that minutes must be passed and should represent a record of the meeting agreed upon by all members present at the meeting. Any significant disagreement should alo be recorded. Keeping the records also provides the bonus that if a conflict does arise there is a record that the group agrees on of what has happened.

If a dispute occurs that cannot be resolved by the parties involved it should be mediated. Disputes do not "get better" or "go away" on their own, you must take action to solve the dispute and to prevent the dispute becoming more serious. Choose an impartial mediator from your group or ask the instructor to act as mediator. The instructor should be asked to mediate a dispute only when internal mediation cannot settle the dispute, or when no impartial mediator can be found within the group. The mediator will review the evidence of what has actually occurred and listen to each side of the dispute. Remember that when a conflict occurs both sides will have very different views of the events that lead to the conflict. The need for an unbiased mediator and independent evidence does not challenge the honesty of those involved. Instead, it gives the impartial and independent view of what has happened. Based on the evidence and the opinions of the parties to the dispute the mediator will suggest a solution. The solution should then be implemented

If a conflict does arise between group members, try each of the following steps. Proceed to the next step only if the conflict cannot be resolved.

• The parties to the disagreement should try to settle the disagreement themselves.
• If the problem is between two group members, choose a third impartial group member as mediator
• The mediator will review the records such as meeting minutes, and separately hear the complaints from each party to the conflict then suggest a resolution of the conflict
• The conflict should be brought to the instructor for mediation. The instructor will mediate conflicts based on available information. Remember the instruction can reach an unbialsed decision only if the proper records are kept in the Teams SVN repository to help interpret the opinions of the parties to the disagreement.