Thinking Process

[DonRotolo]

All of those^^ are good suggestions. As a leader, you first need to find a process that works, and then (the hardest part) convince the rest of the team to use it.

Our team first takes a long day to decide how exactly to win the game. This is our Strategy. (often more than one). We all know some strategies to win at Baseball, but with the new FRC game we need to figure it out each year.

Then we take 1-2 days to create a list of Capabilities. NOT how to do something, but WHAT to do. Example: Throw balls into a basket. We assign priorities to each Capability, because some are more important that others. Try to not leave anything off this list (like "drive across the field")

Next we take 2-4 days to design (not in detail, just the ideas) for Mechanisms that might give our robot the Capabilities we need.

Our sub-teams then go make Prototypes of the Mechanisms, so we can test which is the best. Another 2-3 days, then we decide which ones are best.

We then start building these best mechanisms, hoping to complete them for testing by the end of Week 3. These are assembled into a robot during week 4, then the robot is programmed.

At the end of week 4, we finalize the design and build the "final" robot.

Many of these stages overlap in time. We have the "Final" drive train being built in week 3 for example, and driving code is done in week 2. But for the manipulators - like our shooter this year - we did not finalize the design until week 4.

Once a decision is made, we stick to it unless there is a serious problem that cannot be solved, even with mentor advice. That is, we Freeze the Design in week 2 or 3, and then it is not possible to change the design. (This prevents "scope creep", a term you can Google to learn more)