Quote:
Originally Posted by Seathan93
Unfortunately, you have to be a project manager before an engineer as the leader. You know you're doing your job right if everything is getting done effectively and you're the only one with nothing to do. It's a bit less fun than playing with power tools, but it's your job as the leader.
|
Sounds like what I am doing this season.
To get your team to perform, ORGANIZE. My team went over our project plan with a CATERPILLAR project manager and laid out every task from now until robot ship. This project plan is checked and updated at every meeting. Another way we organize is by having progress reports at the end of each meeting. We do these through our website so everyone can access them. Basically the progress reports go over what happened during the meeting, and what has to happen next to stay on track with our project plan. The progress reports help quantify the amount of work that happened, and also make is so that we don't rely on a core group of people to continue progress.
With the organized approach, it is very easy to see exactly what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done by. This puts a sense of urgency into everyone so that they work harder.
As for design, Titan Robotics does a every-student-has-a-vote type system. The discussions are lead by one of the captains (me this year), and we go through everything from strategy to basic design. We then break up into prototyping units to work on ideas and finalize the robot. This system may not work for everyone though, since we have a ridiculous amount of time at the beginning of build season. (our school has Intersession week, which is a week between semesters where students take a fun "class". It means we can meet from 8AM-9:30PM every day for the first week.)