Team Charter

We share two abstract goals for this project - success with our process and with the product. We aim to cultivate a process that enables group collaboration, individual growth, shared leadership and mutual respect. A successful final product will be interesting for us, achieve a high level of academic success and be a useful solution for our client.

Values and Commitments

A high level of academic work and success is a goal we strive for, however we believe there are other important focuses.

We are students, and as such we attach a strong importance to our learning experience. Each one of us brings different strengths and abilities to this project. We will share these strengths and help each other build mastery in areas that might be weak. Inexperience will never prevent a team member from working on a any piece of the project.

We will not judge failure, but instead encourage it and the learning experiences that failure enables. This attitude requires that failing silently is avoided and support is not reluctant or dictatorial.

When we take on a project task we commit to ensuring it will be done at or before the due date. If we require any additional resources to meet that commitment we will make that known as soon as possible, to ensure that we do not compromise the project.

Disagreements are a healthy and natural aspect of team work. We will be honest and non-confrontational when we voice our opinions. We will resolve disagreements through consensus and group discussion.

A healthy balance is a necessary part of our lives. By sharing the work load we respect the other curricular and life commitments of the people on our team.

Communication

Transparent communication between our team and with our product champion are essential elements for us.

Team meetings will be held twice a week for an hour. Our first meeting will be on Thursday and the other during the weekend. Each member is expected to be present either in person or via video-conference. During the meeting the team will focus on the agenda to avoid going over the time we have budgeted. Each team member will take turns to volunteer to record minutes for each meeting as a record of our process and decisions.

We will use email for any important communication. In addition we will use FlowDock for group conversations and text messaging for urgent updates. Each member is expected to respond to email and text messages within a 24 hour period and to stay up-to-date with FlowDock.

Regular feedback from our product champion is an important part of our process. We will update our product champion at least once every two weeks with relevant information, work and problems that need input.