Team Meeting Notes 07
October 25-27 Team Meetings
Team Meeting Objectives
The main goal of the team meeting this week is to determine which concept your team will pursue for the remainder of the term. Once this decision is made, your team should organize, allocate resources, and begin working towards the assembly review as well as continue with physical modeling in support of the most critical module and technical review.
Full team and instructors should participate in the concept selection process, so it is strongly recommended that you wait until this week's team meeting before making a decision.
Preparation Before Team Meeting 7
Please review the following resources
· G’day
· ASME code of ethics
· 2.009 9 risks
· 2.009 success factors
Meet with your team to discuss the mockup review. What worked well? What did not? How will you do better next time? If there are additional issues that should be looked into before deciding on your project direction, work on them prior to the team meeting.
SIs should meet to form an agenda and devise a rational decision process with relevant criteria for choosing the team's concept. Please send the agenda and proposed decision making process out to the entire team enough in advance so that there is some time for everyone to review and provide feedback. Prepare in advance!
What's due
· Final product decision. Please email final selection to the course instructors after your meeting. After your decision is made, your team should have a first version Gantt chart and task dependency matrices (or similar visualization that clearly shows milestones, key tasks, and timing) through the assembly review in your team area. Your white board may be used for this schedule.
· Code of values. Your team yodas should take the lead on your code of values. Your code of values should be drafted in time for this meeting, and presented by your yodas at the start of this week's team meeting.
Team Meeting 7 Activities
1. Instructors will discuss your mockup review grades.
2. Yodas will begin by discussing your team code of values.
3. Spend about 20 minutes total presenting the short concept summaries prepared before the team meeting, reviewing the team's three ideas and feedback from the mockup presentations.
4. SIs should propose the decision process they have developed, and revisions should be made based upon input from the team.
A Pugh chart or similar rational process should be used to help elucidate and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the concepts relative to your team's project criteria. Think carefully about risks associated with your product concepts and negotiate the product definition for the final alpha prototype. Focus on the common goal of having the best-possible successful project, and in making a timely decision so that your team can move on to the next steps. You should make a choice on the basis of what is the best option, not on an emotional level. Be willing to change your mind as new information becomes available. The experience will help you prepare for times when, as a project manager, you will need to make critical decisions from a set of alternatives. Be thorough but do not belabor the process—begin by checking to see if there is consensus. Be sensitive to team dynamics and focus on the merits of the concepts, not ownership of the ideas. For example, make statements like: the idea has significant technical risk rather than your idea has significant technical risk; the widget fulfills an important need rather than my widget fulfills an important need. Paying attention to how things are said can make a significant difference. Discuss facts not assertion/assumptions. Remember that consensus does not mean that every team member has the same opinion about what is the best direction to pursue. Consensus means that all team members agree that the direction has been chosen and that they will fully engage in helping the development effort succeed in the chosen direction.
5. Once a decision is made, celebrate team buy-in symbolically. This symbolizes that all team members fully support the decision and are committed to advancing the project in its chosen direction. You can paint your blobs (everyonee should join in) and make a chant/cheer for your team
6. Make a plan for the team's next steps (for assembly, MCM and tech review) and allocate responsibilities. Think about the best way to bring all team members up to speed on the chosen concept and how to utilize your team effectively. Divide tasks and assign responsibility for design issues that need to be addressed. Make sure that there is a clear plan for how the product contract and assembly model will be prepared for the assembly review.