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Unread 15-05-2013, 20:32
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VEX Robotics Engineer
AKA: Arthur Dutra IV; NERD #18
FRC #0148 (Robowranglers)
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Re: The 6 Week Build Season and 'Mentor Burnout'

Quote:
Originally Posted by IKE View Post
I would argue that you need a "Stop Build Day" for a reason slightly different han what most are calling for. I have been involved in a lot of project related actitivites, and a lot of project related teams. Almost to a rule, there is a "last minute push" on the projects to meet deadlines. Sometimes the project is small, and the last minute push is a long day of effort. Sometimes an all-nighter. Sometimes a hard week. Sometimes a long tiring month.
Currently Build season is a 6 week push, and at the end of 6 weeks, msot teams have a fairly reasonable prototype that generally has some functionality. Giving them additional access points and time will imrpove the quality useability of that prototype, to an extent. If the access is too universal, and if the access is too open, then there will be a shift towards teams "changing the due date". While many argue this would be better, I actually think for a large portion of teams, this would be significantly worse.

...
What if all teams had to attend a mandatory* "Week Zero" event to go through initial inspection and to do a "functional test" on a real field with maybe a few practice matches to help teams sort out their bugs?

Real world projects have intermediate deadlines with through aspects like design reviews or engineering prototypes. And with large areas looking to expand to Districts, keeping nearly all teams within reasonable driving distance of a "week zero" event is fairly reasonable.

Or what if there was a "Blackout date" from the current ship date extending for one week, after which you could unbag your robot again?

* Unless explicitly waivered as being too difficult to attend due to travel distances.
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Art Dutra IV
Robotics Engineer, VEX Robotics, Inc., a subsidiary of Innovation First International (IFI)
Robowranglers Team 148 | GUS Robotics Team 228 (Alumni) | Rho Beta Epsilon (Alumni) | @arthurdutra

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