Convincing a team to go electronic

[ToddF]

Originally Posted by T.Krauter

Hey everyone,
for me, the next logical step is to move to an entirely electronic scouting system.

First, to make your case, you need to separate your own feelings from the idea. Acknowledge that you might be wrong.

Then, present a well reasoned analysis of exactly what the benefits of such a system would be, over and above the methods you use now. Accurately represent the costs in both time to develop and dollars needed to implement. Then show why the added value represented by the new system is worth the implementation costs.

This process is the same for making any business decision. Be sure that you are accurately presenting both the benefits and the costs. If you oversell the benefits, or undersell the costs, you weaken your case, and damage your future credibility.

If I were on the receiving end of your presentation, I would want you to convince me that going to the electronic system would result in a better chance of winning an event. Some things to consider:
- If you are not an alliance captain, improving your scouting (even 500%) may not increase your chances of winning.
- Could the programming resources you spend switching to an electronic scouting system improve your chances more if they were spent on improving the competitiveness of your robot? For example, by developing killer autonomous routines, or developing fast, reliable vision targeting?