Team & Project Support

Expectations for all students

• Commit code changes to Git often (active at least 3 days per week, 1 or more commits on each of those days); make merge requests early and often (every couple days or less; at least each week; not big bang!). Commit only high-quality code. Don't break the build. If in doubt about high-quality code, see the Professor. Clean code conforms to a style guide such as the suggested one for this course.
• Attend all group meetings, or explain why that's not possible (Ex: conflicting commitments) and make a reasonable effort to catch up with the group afterwards.
• Contribute to group discussions clearly, effectively, and respectfully.
• Respond to all relevant group communications within one day at the most. Let teammates know quickly if work will be late or incomplete. Expectations for communication may be set by the teams, such as replying to text messages within two waking hours.
• Agree to reasonable amounts of work and reasonable deadlines. Make your best effort to meet these commitments. Keep the team informed about challenges and ask team members and TA/Professor for help as required.
• Actively seek to complete an equal share of the work and push the project ahead.

Suggestions for all groups

• You should find a good mode/place to meet: in-person or online chat. For in-person, find somewhere that works for everyone (like a team room). For online team chat (video/text), I suggest using Discord or Slack.
• For meetings, find a time that works for everyone: diverse schedules, 3 campuses, jobs, ... Be on time for these meetings!
• Please be sure to respect everyone's mode of communication. Some people don't like to speak up during meetings but later share more thoughts via online chat. Try to work with each person's strengths. Scrum master to help ensure everyone has their say.
• Respect team member's task preferences: give everyone a fair shot at working on the part they want to (UI, application logic, ...); but everyone needs to be willing to work on what needs to be done.

Handling Group Problems

If you feel a group member is not pulling their weight and should be considered for probation (see below), include the text "DROPPED THE BALL" in your iteration evaluation (confidential section OK). If a student is found to not be contributing well to his/her team, then the professor may do the following:

• Email the whole team highlighting the situation. All team members are invited to reply and clarify the situation (such as if the person was working on something not visible in Git).
• Meet with the team as a whole or with individual members. The group problem will be explained, and the required changes in the student's performance will be outlined. Team members can contribute to these discussions by highlighting their needs and views.
• An under-performing student may get a reduced grade on that iteration (~50%); other team members may have their grades scaled up if their mark suffered as a result of others’ poor performance.