Tips for Choosing and Managing Your Project Group

Getting into Groups

1. Now that you’re registered in EE 552 and have found out that a large part of your mark will be based on your project, it is time to either find or start a project group.

2. If you have a great idea for a feasible project then you should start looking for others who would like to work with you on implementing it. Otherwise you should start talking to other people in your class to see if anyone is planning something great that you could get in on.

3. An important thing to note in this step is that you should not necessarily jump into a project group with three of your closest friends and plan on coming up with an idea later. You will find later on that things work best when at least one group member is particularly committed to and excited about getting your project up and running.

4. If you’re the one with the idea for a project and are looking for people to join you keep a couple of things in mind:

a) Although groups can be 3 to 5 people, sometimes smaller is better. It is really difficult to find a time when 5 people can meet. Also with five people in a group each person has less input and depending on how tasks are assigned one or more people may be left with a very limited understanding of how it all came together.

b) Friends don’t always make the best group members. Look instead for people with similar work ethic as well as similar schedules. This can help to avoid problems down the road.

Getting Started

5. Now that you have your group it is time to get together and choose a project manager.The main job of this person, aside from their work as a regular group member, will be to keep everyone on track and make sure that deadlines are being met. They should not however, be required to pick up someone else’s slack. In most cases the obvious choice for a project manager is the person who’s idea the project was, as they will usually have just a little more invested in seeing it through to completion. However your group may also decide to choose someone who has a lighter course load, or is just plain good at organizing things.

6. Once you have chosen a project manager the whole group should sit down together with a copy of the requirements for each project report, as well as the deadlines. You should then split up the responsibility for getting the information for each report gathered, typed up, and handed in. For example in our group we all worked on the proposal together, and then each person took responsibility for one of the subsequent reports. It would also be possible to have two people responsible for each, or any other way you would like to do it. The benefits behind splitting up the actual report work this way are twofold: firstly it is very difficult to coordinate the whole groups efforts into one typed document, only one person can type at a time, and secondly if each person puts one report together on their own, it may be a document they could take to an interview as an example of their work. Note that the person putting the report together should not be expected to do all of the research, code writing and simulation for each stage, these things are still the responsibility of the whole group.

Getting It Done- The Daily Grind

7. Once the project group is organized and the work has been started you will all find that it is very hard to keep everyone focused on the task at hand. After all, most of you will have the course work for this class as well as five other courses to worry about on top of the project. It is easy to get sidetracked and leave things to the last minute. The biggest help in avoiding tis is to keep the communication lines open. The project manager as well as the person responsible for the upcoming report should really make an effort to get in touch with the other group members at least twice a week to see how things are going. If you know that someone will be asking you what you have been working on, you will be more likely to work on something.

8. Also try and get the group to meet at a specified time once a week so that the weeks work can be put together and everyone can see how much closer you have gotten to the final goal. This is probably the biggest motivation.

9. Another important thing is to really make an effort to stick to the schedules that ou set out for yourselves with the reports. They should not be used just to make the professor happy, but as an indication of how far you have come as well as how far you have to get before the next report. If you try and stick to themthe returns will be great.

If you follow these basic tips it should help your project to be a lot more fun and at least seem like a lot less work. It may also help your group to avoid the types of conflicts that tend to make sure you are no longer friends by the end of the term. Best of luck!!

Application Note brought to you by:

K. Niehaus, M. Mielke, M. Dowdell, T. Robinson, A. Faiz

March 22, 2000