The key to effective teamwork is shared agreement on the expectations of teammates concerning how the team will function. Standards may range from assigning specific roles to each team member, to establishing protocols for conduct and communication, to agreeing on what tools (version control, word processor, etc.) the team will use. Team standards -- of all these kinds -- establish a common understanding of expectations, and facilitate efficient and effective collaboration. Without these norms teams have difficulty communicating and cooperating since each individual may have a different interpretation of how things should be done.
The first task for a newly-formed team is to take an inventory of what talents exist on the team...and what gaps there might be in the team's capabilities that one should think about planning to fill. On a more personal side, it's nice to get to know a little more the team members, including some hobbies or special interests.
This document contains the complete set of our team’s by-laws. The by-laws include a responsibilities section and a procedures section. The responsibilities section assigns each role (e.g. secretary, treasurer), who is assigned to the role, what responsibility the role entails, and the authority given to persons in the role. The procedures section includes how meetings are run, how decisions are made, and how the team carries out communication. See page 2 for a table of contents.
This document contains the complete set of our team’s conflict resolution plans. The Conflict Resolution Plan is a supporting document to the by-laws. In the conflict resolution plans we set up the procedures to reduce the incidence of toxic conflicts and establish our set of mutual expectations. Also, we consider how we will handle conflicts when they do occur.
This document contains a design review, with a summary of where our team is in the design process. It includes our former plans, what we have actually completed, and what our next steps are. The document also outlines past and future risks, challenges, and resolutions.
This Design Review 4 document contains our final status update and product user manual. Throughout the document, we describe our client’s problem, the design process, constraints, work breakdown, and struggles that our team encountered. Finally, we include a complete user manual that describes the operation and maintenance of our final product.