Assignment No. 1: Organizing

1. Assignment No. 1: Organizing • Part I. 1/4 of the grade • Decide the following and report the results in this section. You should be committed to these but you are free to change them later with mutual consent. (Hint: It is far easier to relax a demanding plan by mutual consent that to make a plan more demanding after project inception.) • Who will be the team lead for each week? Will you rotate Project Manager every two weeks to allow others experience – or would this be too disruptive? • Decide on timing to review and sign off assignments to be submitted. L1 L2 L3

2. Decide on your procedure for assignment submission (e.g., documentation for the team as proof that the assignment was turned in on time). • Decide on a simple and fast process for personnel problem resolution (example: a member who is not providing enough effort). For example, you could ignore the issue and simply use the mutual evaluation process spelled out in the syllabus; or you could use the team’s regular teleconference call for an open discussion; or the team lead could involve its facilitator. In any case, there should be a clear image in everyone’s mind how problems will be recognized and handled before they occur. Write this out and tell us what the process is. • Deliverable: A team report of about 1 page. L4 L5 L6

3. Part II. 1/4 of the grade In this course, you will both study and actually use collaboration technologies. I want you to select and get accustomed to modes of distributed communication in the course. This is part of the learning process, and you will be asked to analyze and report on these techniques by the end of the course. In this assignment and for future ones, experiment with, use, and keep notes on the most appropriate communication technologies that you can identify. Module 2 discusses criteria for selecting such systems, and discussed options. Read ahead through the relevant sections, as well as Carmel/Tjia pp.164-170 to get an idea of some options. Describe and explain the tools you are most likely to use as well as ones that are or were in contention. Deliverable: A team report of at most 2 pages. L7 L8 L9

4. Here is an example of weighted decision-making for buying a pet (with apologies in advance).

5. Part III. 1/4 of the grade • Decide among yourselves what application you will implement this semester. There is no restriction but be sure that your specification includes functionality that you feel very confident about accomplishing. The range of implementation languages can be as simple as a spreadsheet or website and as complex as a Java application. Please observe the following about the application, however. • It must require several people to build • It must be non-trivial • It must be fairly easy to understand L10 L11 L12

6. Part III. 1/4 of the grade Deliverables: Team reports on the following: (a) A high-level requirements document for the entire project. These should be prioritized via triage into (1) Must do (keep this list modest!), (3) Entirely optional, and (2) Neither of the above. (b) Detailed requirements for the functionality that you will implement within the duration of the first week (you are not required to actually implement yet). L13 L14 L15

7. Part IV. 1/4 of the grade In this course you will both study and actually apply people management techniques for geographically distributed environments. I want you to select and get accustomed to modes of management this semester. This is part of the learning process, and you will be asked to analyze and report on these techniques by the end of the course. Module 3 discusses various options. Read ahead through the relevant sections to get an idea of some of the issues involved. Include a perusal of Google code (http://code.google.com/) and Google groups (http://groups.google.com/). Deliverable: Your individual report, up to a page in length, describing how you and the team have started this process. L16 L17