How long does your team plan?

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by EricH

In 2005, we didn't start until week 5, and we were complete other than some modifications to our arm's grabbing end and painting by ship date. 2006, we had a drivable frame before the shooter was locked down.

Actually we started cutting metal on Saturday of Week 4 but by then we had a pretty darn good idea of what we were building. At that point we were still thinking about which of two drive train concepts to use. We didn't finalize the drive train until Week 5 when we had a working prototype of the riskier one. The frame was designed to accomodate both.

One of the keys is knowing what you can do and how long it will take. We could spend that time figuring out what we were going to do because we knew that it would take about a day to cut the frame, another to weld it, and two or three to integrate it all. So we could start with a well defined design and still get it to the programming guys about the middle of week 5.

Another key is spiral development. Some things you can decide early and lock in. Others will take more time to figure out so you wait. For example, in most cases the drive is the most important subsystem. The nature of the drive is determined in large part by the field and how you want to interact with it. So we will pick a concept fairly early and have some people working on the final drive design while we are still figuring out some other item like the ball pickup or shooter. Some flexibility is left in the frame to accomodate different mounting options for subsystems.

One advantage of a spiral approach is you get the important things done first. Also if you make individuals reponsible for one subsystem then they are only stressed during the time that system is taking "center stage". So the drive train team might be working hot and heavy for 2 weeks, but when it is done then they are done. They can help with other systems or go put their life back together. It greatly reduces individual stress.

One thing to remember about FRC, the process is as important as the machine. The teams that do well year after year have good management of their product development process. This is the real contribution of engineering mentors, they understand this and do it almost instinctively because that is how they work in the everyday world.