Team and Project Management

Criteria Definition

Team and Project Management can include various methods to keep team progress on track, while ensuring that material and resource usage remains at sustainable levels. Aside from the notebook rubric, utilizing Team and Project Management is essential to achieve goals within a set timeframe and utilize team resources effectively.

This criteria provides several good methods to record Project Management within the description itself, which are a key method towards achieving maximum points for this criteria. Classic methods include, but are not limited to: Timelines/Gantt Charts, Bills of Materials, Plastic Usage Diagrams, Tournament Recaps, and Financial Breakdowns.

Time Management

One thing to consider before regular meetings to accomplish the goal defined in the previous segments is to outline a schedule and establish how the team will stay on track throughout the season. The first topic that should be established would be the outlining of meeting times, as well as weekly hours to put in. With the initial time to work with decided upon by the team, further outlines, goals to be set, and a rough timeline for the future can be decided upon.

With the amount of time put in by the team set, the next step should be to create a schedule for the season including competitions, scrimmages, and time needed to complete parts of the robot (building, testing, programming, driving practice). While this step is fairly flexible with regards to adding and removing events, it is best to try and nail down as many prospective dates as early as possible, so as to accurately budget time, established earlier, for the season.

One effective way to keep track of all of this scheduling information is a Gantt Chart that shows goals and timelines. There is an example illustrated below, but generally, Gantt Charts show timelines of a set basis, using different rows for various tasks that need to be accomplished in that time. Gantt Charts can be created in programs such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and additional free online generators. From there, it is easy to mark the various goals and events along this set timeline. Be sure to keep it all realistic, given the previously decided upon time budget, and add additional updates to the goals and schedules as it seems necessary (monthly or after each competition is recommended).

Resource Management

In addition to managing the time to work on a Design Cycle, managing the material resources available for teams is a key step in creating a workable plan. Resource Management tends to take any of the following forms:

• Plastic Usage Diagrams

  • With plastic being limited by current VRC rules, diagrams outlining a team's plastic usage can help not only to prove the legality of a robot, but can help illustrate a plan for how to use available plastic in the design process.

• Bills of Materials

  • A Bill of Materials is a table showcasing the parts used in the assembly of a robot. This can generally take the form of a large BoM following robot construction, or a smaller BoM showcasing parts used in each step of the build.

  • This can help keep an accounting of what parts of those available have been used in a design, and can help to either plan for need parts or evaluate the total cost of a solution based on the parts used.

• Financial Spreadsheets

  • As there are a large amount of costs and potential revenue sources encountered by VRC teams, creating a basic Income Statement or Balance Sheet can help to ensure teams are not overspending and ensure budgets are being followed throughout the season.

  

Tournament Entries

The last major segment that should be included multiple times in any notebook are Tournament Entries. In this segment, the team will give an in-depth overview of how the tournament went, mainly covering these attributes:

• Summarize the match results (teammates, opponents, scores)

• What went well with the robot, code, and strategy

  • What didn't work or could be improved

• Strategies used for the Alliance Selection and Elimination Rounds

• Consistency of the autonomous routine

On a general basis, the Tournament Entries should serve as a general "what worked, what could be better" of an actual use-case for the robot. Tournaments are some of the best, most efficient testing available, and should be used to stress-test of the robot, and decided which strategies to use again, which to retire, and which to improve. These segments serve as a fantastic jumping point for new Design Cycles.