This is the post for CS3216 Team Dynamic lecture reflection questions.

• How much control and authority would you have given to this fourth voice in our choice of platforms (HTML5/native iOS)?

I think based on the given situation, the best choice is to let the only coder inside the team decide, because in terms of how long it take to finish the product and how long it takes for the coder to pick up the required skills for HTML5 or iOS is only known ot the coder himself, therefore let him decide will be more reliable to know the actual time needed to finish the product. I think run experiment with 2 platforms is really a bad choice, it’s a waste of resource as well as time, I think it’s better to just spend at most 1 day to study the pros and cons of each platform, link them with product needs, then the team must make the decision. At last, for the fourth voice, as he is not part of the team, it’s better to take the voice as suggestion rather than ‘decision’.

• With the deadline just 2 weeks away, how would you, as project manager, resolved this problem if it were to occur within the team?

As I have answered during lecture, first thing needs to be done is to identify the key features of the product, and drop all other features, so that the project is still a manageable functional prototype within the short time period. Then, finalize the schedule and scope of the project as there is no time to try and error during the development any more. At last, just make sure everyone put more effort into the project. But as a project manager, the best way is never push a 7 weeks’ project into 2 weeks time period. :P

• What are some of the issues that we presented that could have happened to any team? List down 3, and talk about how you would have resolved these issues.

1.Team communication issue, anything require teamwork may face this problem. And this is the biggest issue to team performance, any misunderstanding and miscommunication will result in conflicts and low efficiency. To overcome this, the team need to list role and task for each member in details so that everyone knows what they should finish and what others are doing.

2.Deadline issue, as CS3216 is not the only module for us, we can’t spend our time all for CS3216 final project. But the deadline can’t change, therefore we must plan well, for example, allocate some flexible time for expected events, like one member can’t work because of computer is broken. Make sure no one is waiting and doing nothing because of dependency. The best solution is just make sure everyone finish their work on time.

3.Marketing issue, actually I think this is an issue just for this semester, because this year CS3216 have a lot of coders but not much business people. For example, our team is full of coders with no business experience. We may want to do a lot of features that in the end is just so ‘fancy’ but no use if we don’t do well in getting user feedback (which should be the business guy’s job). For our team, as we built product for BigSpoon, I believe for the marketing part, we can rely on them (they already start to schedule meetings with our app users). With enough feedback and some guide from business guys in BigSpoon, I believe we can deliver a good product at the end.