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]A project course requires you to meet many times to discuss various things. Most of these discussions can be very informal. However, periodic semi-formal project meetings are useful too, especially at critical junctures of the project, when input from all members are required to make decisions. Some courses require the project supervisor to attend the project meeting in an observer/evaluator (and sometimes, facilitator) capacity.
Having an agenda reduces aimless "time waster" type meetings, and sets targets to achieve during the meeting. Decide the agenda for the meeting in advance, and communicate it to the team. If this is not possible, at least decide the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.
Each meeting should have one person chairing (or moderating) the meeting. It is the chair's responsibility to steer the meeting along the correct path.
Once the starting time is decided, it is everyone's responsibility to be there on time. If you are not sure of making it on time, let others know before finalizing the start time, so that it can be rescheduled. Two great "time wasters" during meetings are waiting for someone to arrive, and filling in someone who joined mid-meeting.
Every minute wasted in a meeting is a loss for every person attending the meeting. A meeting should not be a single minute longer than it is absolutely necessary. If your meetings seem to take longer than necessary, consider having stand-up meetings.
Appoint a "scribe" to take notes during the meeting (i.e., to record minutes) . These notes should be later circulated among the team members, and perhaps sent to the supervisor. This is particularly useful for the supervisor to keep track of decisions taken by your team (remember, he/she tracks multiple teams), and for members who did not attend the meeting.
Just before you break up the meeting, the scribe can recap (verbally) what had been discussed during the meeting. This is done to reiterate the "points to take away from the meeting". This is also useful to gauge how much you accomplished during the meeting.
Do not let the meeting drag on. When you aim to finish on time, there is an incentive to "get on" with the agenda.
Higher-priority items should appear earlier in the agenda. If you run out of time, you can postpone the unfinished lower-priority items to a later meeting.
Schedule your meetings on a regular fixed time slot (e.g., we meet every Friday 12-2pm). Do this at the beginning of the course and inform team members to keep this time slot free. This reduces the chances of someone skipping a meeting due to a "timetable clash".
Setting ground rules avoids certain unwelcome behavior from team members, without directly confronting the culprit. Some example ground rules...
Some suggestions to avoid frictions during meetings (and at other times)...
Problem: A team member frequently sends the project discussion along an irrelevant tangent. Some distracters joke too much, some takes pleasure in arguing about unimportant things, some bring up "interesting" trivia (e.g., "By the way, you know what else is an interesting design pattern?"), some love to interrupt with chit chat ("Hey, is that a new phone, what happened to the the old one?"), and the list goes on.
Recommendations: This if often (but not always) unintentional. Set a ground rule to pre-empt this kind of behavior (e.g., "no too much joking during meetings").
Problem: A team member uses his native language when talking to his compatriot team mates.
Recommendations: This is unacceptable. Set ground rules to pre-empt this behavior.
Problem: A team member who loves to hear his/her own voice dominates the discussion.
Recommendations: The meeting chair should take actions to give equal chance to other team members
Problem: A team member constantly brings up topics related to his/her own part of the project, when the team is in the middle of discussing something else.
Recommendations: It is the job of the chair to redirect the discussion to the topic at hand. Another tactic is to allocate time in the agenda for each person to bring up issues.
Problem: A team member uses the meeting as a surrogate social life. He/she insists on frequent meetings and uses various tactics to lengthen meetings.
Recommendations: A meeting is a costly tool (in term of time spent). Question the need of meeting that does not have a worthy agenda. During a meeting, the chair should follow the agenda and limit the meeting to the duration previously agreed.
Problem: A team member often skips team meeting
Recommendations: Count the time spent in meeting towards the contribution calculation for each team member
If your supervisor attends project meetings as an "observer", how you conduct the meeting will form an impression on his/her mind as to how professional you go about doing the project, and this impression can directly or indirectly affect your grade.
Any suggestions to improve this book? Any tips you would like to add? Any aspect of your project not covered by the book? Anything in the book that you don't agree with? Noticed any errors/omissions? Please use the link below to provide feedback, or send an email to damith[at]comp.nus.edu.sg
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---| This page is a part of the online book Tips to Succeed in Software Engineering Student Projects V1.8, 3rd Sept 2008, Copyrights: Damith C. Rajapakse |---