Team Dynamics

04 October 2013

This week lecture, we had a special guest speaker coming to give talk, Uncle Jim from CS3216 last year. He talked about the importance of teamwork and how their team struggled during their final project. I happened to know Hieu, their sole coder in the team who had to carry both backend and frontend for their product. I still can remember him during last semester, always a zombie look with a heavy eye bag due to lack of sleep. Quite scary! Need to admit that he had tanked really well =) Wish you best of luck this semester, Hieu :)

Uncle Jim presented his unusual team comprised of only 3 members, one coder and two designers X_X I can partly feel their pain during development, their unorthodox method of parallel track prototyping on both HTML5 and iOS platform. Below are my opinions regarding the team dynamics:

1. How much control and authority would you have given to this fourth voice in our choice of platforms (HTML5/native iOS)?

The best possible answer is always that it is depended on the particular situation and parties involved. In case of their team who lacks developing experience and technology insights, external opinions certainly would benefit them. However, I would not give too much control and authority toward the fourth voice. I think the team still should have the biggest voice in this important decision. I would only consider fourth voice as reference, not an essential factor. The reason is quite simple:

• No one knows your taste better than you. As a team, we should know clearly our strength and preference. Platform choice is a decision that is closely related to team's experience. Even with trying a new platform, team must have a good approximation of ability to perform.
• Unknown commitment from outsider. In a crazily heavy course like CS3216, we often hear "You will die" from our seniors. Thus, I believe working for 2 teams at the same time is equal to suicide. The fourth voice still has his own team project as the first priority. So if we cannot make sure of fourth voice's commiment in the long term, why we give him big control at early stage ?

2. With the deadline just 2 weeks away, how would you, as project manager, resolved this problem if it were to occur within the team?

That's the situation where we need a project manager the most. If I were their project manager, I would choose one platform, make the decision as fast as possible and "force" all members to perform. With only 2 weeks away, the team does not need discussions anymore; what they need a firm decision. I agree with prof Colin's opinion on Uncle Jim's blog post: No more resources should be wasted and no more time for trial.

3. What are some of the issues that we presented that could have happened to any team? List down 3, and talk about how you would have resolved these issues.

• Confusion over external opinions

  A team should not give too much authorization for outside voice, especially for a key decision. When reflect back to all projects I have done, I always favor a slow-start strategy. I always try to do as much research/testing by myself as I can before officially working. Thanks to this preparation step I can have at least some ideas, which I think suitable for my project. Therefore, I could contribute and help my team independent from others' opinions.

• Wasting resources

  To utilize team resources, first we need to reach an agreement as quick as possible. We cannot waste too much time on quarrels or unnecessary discussions. Of course we can spend manpower on researching/trials, but try to minimize the amount of effort spent on this step.

• Lack a leader

  There is one pattern I have observed through all my school projects (at least for CS modules): we usually prefer 'egoless' team model (without a leader). Actually, I think an experienced team leader would benefit the team a lot in decision making, project scheduling, etc. In case of Uncle Jim's team, I think they would reach an agreement much faster if they had a real project with the final voice. That's the reason we always can see project managers or team leaders in any company.

With all the pitfalls seen from iMeetU team situation, I hope our team can avoid these problems and smoothly walk together until the showcase :)

Cheers

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