[Doug Leppard]

Key secret to 1902s last two years of success has been a loose but working project management.

I was so proud of the hardware guys, they committed to having hardware done by week 5 and held themselves to it. They put pressure on themselves to get it done on time even in the midst of some outside venders not delivering. They had a Gantt chart and followed it. See Stephen Kowski's post a few messages back (1369 partnered with 1902).

The programmers didn't wait until the bot was done and worked every week and all Saturdays to get proto types done. They had their goals and used Vex kits to work out a lot of the programming issues.

You can not afford with the 6 week schedule to do things serially, meaning complete hardware, then electrical then software then driving. They must work in parallel each getting things done so in the final weeks it comes together in a complete robotics system. This last year the robot base and arm were built in separate locations and done at the same time and then assembled together.

It is good to have someone that overlooks all of it and makes sure things are coordinated, needs not to be a master of any of the disciplines but have a feel for all of it. For if hardware is changed it may mean software must be change to adjust for it.