Teamwork is essential for the success of an engineering project. More importantly, teamwork allows (and forces) us to work together to overcome challenges. This gives us many opportunities to follow the teachings of Christ concerning our love and concern for our fellow man. Teamwork also requires individual responsibility and servant-leadership. The senior design teams are meant to highlight opportunities for learning and development in these areas.
Each senior design team will consist of four members. Teams will be selected by the instructor based on input from students (see the Project Request Form). Teams will remain together for the entire year.
Each team will have a leader appointed by the instructor for a term of one quarter. The instructor will appoint a new leader or re-appoint the old leader at the beginning of each quarter.
Team leaders will be responsible for the following:
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Organizing the team's structure |
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Organizing and leading team meetings |
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Ensuring that the team stays on schedule |
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Reporting progress and problems to the instructor |
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Disseminating information from the instructor to the team members |
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Helping the instructor evaluate the performance of individual team members |
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Leading the team to resolve conflicts (technical and personal) |
The team leader is still expected to perform technical work in the group at a 75% load level. In other words, team leaders are expected to perform 3/4 as much technical work as other team members, and 1/4 of their time is devoted to their leadership duties.
All members of the team are responsible for providing quality and on-time work. All team members are expected to support each other in achieving the goals of the team. Team members are responsible for notifying the team leader and all affected parties as soon as possible if any delays or problems are anticipated. Team members are expected to work "overtime" if a critical part of the project is behind schedule, even if the late system is not their primary responsibility. Overall, team members are expected to work together with their team to form a strong community of servant-leaders, as well as to complete their individual tasks on-time and with quality.
Team leaders will assist the instructor in evaluating team members throughout the quarter. At the end of the quarter, team members will also assist the instructor in evaluating their team leader. The mechanisms for this may include evaluation forms, interviews, and status reports.
Kevin Bolding September 22, 2009