Project 2: Team Organization and Task Allocation Proposal Group 7: Robert Moe, Celi Sun, Mark Woehrer, John Zumwalt Due: Friday, March 7 The following text is the same as Project 1: Group Description: The group will be split into two teams, the hardware team and the software team. The hardware team will be primarily concerned with the mechanics of the robot, while the software team will be primarily concerned with the software needed for the robot. There will be overlap between the groups when necessary but the two groups will proceed forward on parallel paths. The given subdivision will reduce the bandwidth needed for communication between all four group members and hopefully reduce the scheduling complexity needed for team meetings. Each team will consist of two members. The four members of the total group will rotate through the two sub-groups in a round robin fashion. For each project there will be a senior member and a junior member. For each project a new member will enter a sub-group but one of the members will remain in the group. The person who remains in the group is the senior member. The new member in the group becomes the junior member. In this way there will be overlap between projects and the senior member can help the junior member get up to speed. For the first project the senior member will be chosen by each sub-group. The hardware team will be responsible for the design, building, testing and documentation for the robot platform. The software team will be responsible for the design, code, testing and documentation for the robot platform. The exact division of labor will be decided for each project by each team. In this way the two different team can independently decide how to optimally split up their task. The senior group member of each team is responsible for attending all group meetings. In this way all four members of the group do not have to find time in their schedule for a meeting. The junior member is encouraged to attend all meetings if possible. If one team should get done with their assigned task, they will assist the other team in completing their task. The basic idea is that the project load will try to be balanced at all times. The four group members will each take their turn merging the text from the two groups needed for the final report. This team member will be responsible for setting the deadline for when they need the text from the other members, and adding any additional text needed to complete the report. The following text is different from Project 1: Task Description: The following tasks need to be carried out for both the hardware and software teams: Design, Coding/Building, Testing, and Documentation. Design is an important task because it sets the course for the remaining work, i.e. a general plan of attack for the problem must first be hashed out by both teams. The design task is useful for thinking about how the robot will function in general by examining specific cases which try to cover the problem space. Each team must then try to design the hardware and software to meet the needs of the overall plan -- this is the coding and building task where the "actual" work is done. The testing task works in conjunction with the design and coding/building tasks. This task tries to verify if the robot functions as expected in the target environment. The testing task is important because it can be used to find problems with the coding/building task, unexpected features of the environment not accounted for, or problems with the overall design philosophy. Documentation is an important task because it describes the behavior and design of the robot's hardware and software. Documentation is important because it can help fill-in details that might not be obvious from direct examination of the code and hardware. The documentation task is also important because it provides a means of transferring information between projects. The whole process of Design, Coding/Building, Testing and Documentation is iterated several times and may not proceed in that order. The final presentation and final report are important tasks because they are the primary way for us to communicate our results to others. Software Division of Labor: Mark will be the senior team member for the software group since he was the junior member for the previous project. He has been assigned the coding task because he is more familiar with the coding environment. He has been assign the task of documentation so that Robert can focus on his tasks. Robert will be the junior team member for the software group. Robot's past role as senior member of the hardware team will give the software team greater insight in how the hardware works. Robert has been assigned the design and testing tasks so that he can work more closely with the hardware team. Hardware Division of Labor: Charlie will be the senior team member for the hardware group since he was the junior member for the previous project. Charlie has been assigned the testing task because it is one of his strengths. He has been assigned the design task because John is better at building. John will be the junior team member for the hardware group. John's past role as senior member of the software team will give the hardware team greater insight in how the software works. John was also involved in the early development of the hardware which will help in his transition to hardware. It is because this involvement that John has been assigned to the building task. John has been assigned to the documentation task because he did a good job on the last project helping Mark to document the hardware. Final Presentation and Report: John will will take care of the presentation of the robot for this project, because can work closely with Robert who did the presentation for the last project, and can hopefully build upon the work that Robert did. Mark will take care of the final report for the project, because he has shown that he writes clearly and integrates well with the other group members. Team Assignment Summary: Hardware: Charlie Sun (Senior) John Zumwalt Software: Mark Woehrer (Senior) Robert Moe Tasks Assignment summary: Software: - Design: Robert - Coding: Mark - Testing: Robert - Documentation: Mark Hardware: - Design: Celi - Building: John - Testing: Celi - Documentation: John Final Presentation: John Final Report: Mark